Python console in Power BI

Question

I'm currently working of Power BI with python scripting. I'd like to print (using the function print) but I'm not able to find a way to see my printed message anywhere.

I've already search on Google and Stack Overflow if a console exists on Power BI to have the Python output

import pandas as pd

dataset = pd.DataFrame(dataset.loc[:1, 'access_token'])

access_token = dataset.iloc[0]
print(access_token)

I'd like to have the output of print(access_token)

Answer 1

I've finally found an efficient way to print debug in Python in Power BI.

As long as we cannot use the function print because we don't have a display of the standard output of Python in Power BI, we can raise exception in order to display a variable or anything else.

You can use raise Exception(TheVariableYouWantToPrint)`

For example, you can do raise Exception(dataset) if you want to check the content of the dataset global variable

You can also print a string like raise Exception("Hello World")

It's not the best way to print something but still, that's the only way I've found to do it easily and efficiently

Answer 2

Sorry, no console. But there are other ways to inspect your variables. Not using print() though. You haven't specified whether you're working with a Python visual directly on the Report tab, or the Run Python Script option under the Transform tab in the Power Query Editor. I'd suggest the latter.

Try this:

1: In the report tab, click Click Home > Enter Data > Load without inserting any data.

2: Click Edit Queries and select Transform > Run Python Script

3: Insert the following snippet in the dialog box:

import pandas as pd
d = {'col1': [1, 2], 'col2': [3, 4]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data=d)

I've just used some sample data since I don't have your dataset. The important thing here is that both df in my sample and dataset in your sample are of type pandas.core.frame.DataFrame.

4: Click OK and you should get this:

Most variables (we'll get to that later) that you import or create should be made available there. In our case we have d and df. Click on table to the right of df to see this:

I hope this helps!

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End note:

About the 'Most variables...' part. It seems that whether or not your variables are made available will depend on the datatype of said variable. I tried using a version of the snippet in your question and found that access_token = df.iloc[0] returns a variable of type pandas.core.series.Series. This will for some reason not be available for direct inspection as is the case for d and df that are of type dict and pandas.core.frame.DataFrame, respectively. So to make access_token availale to you, you should try access_token = dataset.iloc[0].to_frame().