Power Pivot Referential Integrity

[MikeDBMan]

In the database world I often hear the term "referential integrity". It basically means you can't have a product in your list of invoices where the product does not exist in the product table. However in Power Pivots, I don't see any way to verify or check for any kind of referential integrity except by manually doing so.

I am very new to Power Pivot and I have had it crash many times so I am not sure I even want to invest any more time in it. So this is two questions:

1. Is there a way to determine referential integrity of data among tables within Power Point?
2. Is it worth the time to invest in Power Pivot or is it a beta tool?

 

[Matt Allington]

1. Is there a way to determine referential integrity of data among tables within Power Point?
2. Is it worth the time to invest in Power Pivot or is it a beta tool?

1. No. Pp is a reporting dB and it assumes you manage this before loading.
2. Yes, it is a brilliant reporting dB, although it sucks a bit with its crashes.

 

[akice]

A few other comments:

1) PP won't balk at a lack of referential integrity, but will display "blank" <blank>member if integrity is missing. (But in fairness, <blank> can show "blank" for other reasons like model design.)
2) PP is an awesome reporting tool - but just about a must to be using 64 bit Excel with it. I was like you and almost gave up on it when first using cause of all the crashing. Moved to 64 bit and it has been much smoother (though still does crash on occasion). If you are already on 64 bit, then I would investigate install issues.</blank></blank>