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    Support relative path to excel/csv sources

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    Boris Lipschitz's profile image

    Boris Lipschitz on 08 Sep 2015 10:25:40

    Currently, when excel file is loaded to Power BI, the absolute filepath is captured in the M query. It would be nice if relative filepath was supported. Thus we could place excel file next to pbix and not worry about the file location (local machine, shared folder on server or onedrive)

    Comments (87)
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    Gabriel on 05 Jul 2020 23:08:59

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    I would expect Microsoft would consider such a useful idea, almost 3 years since the suggestion was made and not available yet. The vitality of a software product is done by the amount of developers and end-users. Most passionate end-users are the ones making these suggestions.

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    MarcosT100 on 05 Jul 2020 23:06:46

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    I would agree this would be a great feature. Another option that may be easier to implement is to enable PowerBI to identify its own path so we can then use this as a parameter when pointing to datasources stored in the same folder. Excel has a simple formula to identify its own path which is SourceFilename = ThisWorkbook.Path so perhaps PowerBI can replicate this.

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    Ziv Leyes on 05 Jul 2020 23:05:21

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    I think it will be very useful to support relative path, this way, you can send a pbi file to someone else and ask them to place the source files in the same folder.
    The query will be looking at it's own containing path as the local path. so if the source is somefile.csv, it will defaultly look into the current folder it's running from

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    Roan Isaku on 05 Jul 2020 22:59:22

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    Any update from the dev team on relative paths?

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    Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 22:54:37

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    Absolutely necessary to make it comfortable

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    Marcus Custodio on 05 Jul 2020 22:54:04

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    Would love to see this implemented... I have a report with several queries, and would like to keep each query in a separate file, which would then be stored in git. It would enable us to easily review changes to specific queries and rollback when necessary.
    I could achieve that with relative reference to query files in the same folder as the pbix file is.

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    Mauricio on 05 Jul 2020 22:48:41

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    Hi, I would appreciate this as well. It is very useful for deploying template reports in applications.

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    Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 22:47:59

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    Hi there,
    I would appreciate this feature. We are trying to deploy a dashboard template with the data source in the same folder. For my teammates it would be very helpful, not to change the source path.

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    André Armenni on 05 Jul 2020 22:47:53

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    I cannot stress how important this is. Upvoted!

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    mira_bella on 05 Jul 2020 22:38:38

    RE: Support relative path to excel/csv sources

    I agree!! It would make so much easier for my colleagues to update the files independently on their own machines... Wonder why isn't this working now.