Data Shaping is the process of consolidation of the data before it becomes a part of your data model. Data shaping can be done at different places, depending upon where you want to apply data shaping techniques. Data shaping can be applied in:

• Source Database: This is the most obvious choice for consolidation. It is based on traditional data warehousing principles of Extracting-Transforming-Loading (ETL). 
• Power Query: It’s the built-in tool within Power BI, that enables you to perform all kinds of transformations to your data. 
• Data model: The last option would be to perform data shaping on the data model itself. This is the method you should be avoided, as it is usually a consequence of inadequate and poor planning.

Data Shaping for Power BI 

Power BI provides a powerful tool for performing data shaping tasks. Once you are in Power BI Desktop, you can click on the Transform data option under the Home tab to open the Power Query editor. There are a whole bunch of transformations available to bring your data into optimal shape. Some of the options available are renaming columns and tables, changing data types, removing columns, filtering rows, replacing values, etc. 

Read on to know more about Power BI with a real-time example.