I was recently working on a large Power BI Data Model and I did not want to refresh the entire data model for my updated dataset to come through.

This would mean refreshing the large Fact table with a few million rows and a complex underlying TSQL query.

All that I required was to get a new value in my Dimension table. And this is how I figured out a way to do it below.

EDIT: I had another way of completing the refresh, which was longer and involved the Power Query Editor. This new way is a lot easier and quicker.

Right click on the table you want to refresh, then select Refresh Data

Below you will see how this works when I am refreshing my Last Refreshed table

 

UPDATE: 27 Feb 2019

I had a question from Anselmo Gomez on Twitter asking how to do this in the Power Query Editor, so please find how to do this below.

In my example I am going to refresh my Products table.

  • Go into Power Query Editor and go to the table that you want to refresh
    • I went to my Products Table
  • Go to any column in the table, click on the drop down to look at filtering the table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Then click Ok
  • I now saw that I had a new Applied Step called Filtered Rows, and when I looked at the Power Query M language all that it is doing is using a Table.Select
  • Now when I click on Close and Apply it will only refresh this table into the data model.

I hope that you have found this blog post useful. If you have any questions or comments, then please leave them in the section below.