What is the primary function of Power Query in Power BI?

The primary function of Power Query in Power BI is to connect and transform data. Power Query serves as a data connection technology, allowing users to connect to various data sources including databases, web services, and files. It provides a powerful, user-friendly interface where users can perform data cleansing and transformation tasks without needing extensive programming knowledge. Through Power Query, you can filter rows, change data types, merge tables, and apply various transformations to prepare the data for analysis.

This capability is essential because the quality and structure of the data directly influence the accuracy and effectiveness of the visualizations and reports created in Power BI. By ensuring the data is in the right format and accurately represents what users need, Power Query helps streamline the data preparation process, making it a critical component of any Power BI project.

The other options—visualizing data, sharing reports online, and creating dashboards—although integral to Power BI, are functionalities that come after the data has been sourced and transformed. These activities focus on presenting the data rather than preparing it, which is why they are not the primary function of Power Query.