Using R in Power BI - Object reference not set to an instance of an object error !!!

Two days ago I tried a solution provided by Imke Feldmann and showcased by Ruth Pozuelo Martinez about "Importing data from a PDF file to Power BI".

I followed the instructions step by step and when it ends up to see the result, Ouch !!!, I got this error message :

"Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Details DataSourceKind=R".

And it tooks me 02 days to figure out what was the problem and thanks to Praveen Govind who had a similar issue using a Oracle client and who provided the solution.

What is the problem ?

So this kind of error occures when the platform version of your Power BI Desktop apps do not match the RStudio one. In my case the Power BI Desktop apps was in 32 bits and RStudio was in 64 bits.

To resolve the issue, I just uninstalled the 32 bits version of the Power BI Desktop app and installed the 64 bits one and all worked as a charm.

Conclusion

If you get a "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error first check the platform version of all the apps/connectors/software that are working togethers.

Sources

• Ruth video demonstration : Import from PDF into Power BI Desktop.
• Imke blog post : Import text from pdf files in Power BI.
• Praveen answer on stackoverflow : POWERBI - Object reference not set to an instance of an object