In this case, the target cell is the “Region” header. Looking back at our sample data, you can see that there is a common cell in all our sheets that lies at the upper left of the data we want to extract. STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE TARGET HEADER ROW AND COLUMN: Unpivot the matrix for each sheet and append into a single dataset.Remove the extra rows and columns, leaving you with a squeaky-clean dataset.Automatically detect columns up to that header column.Automatically detect rows up to that header row.Identify the header name for the column that demarcates the beginning of the matrix.So, let’s look at how we can use Power Query to handle this chaos: The Sales Manager sends you the new numbers, and you hit refresh, and … an error! Peeking at the data, you see that he changed the layout of the file and also added new salespeople to the matrix!Īs enjoyable as it would be just to tell the manager to stick to a consistent format, sometimes this isn’t realistic or feasible. Patting yourself on the back, you file the report away until February rolls around. This table looks pretty clean, right? Using Power Query, you can load this sheet, remove the first two rows and columns, unpivot the data, and you have the numbers you’re looking for in tabular format. Suppose my sales manager sends me a monthly sales report structured similarly to that below: xlsx workbook that feeds into it to follow along with here.īe sure to update the query (the Source step path) to point to your own local machine. You can download a zip file with the updated sample. Today, I want to talk about a technique for dynamically handling sheets with different structures. That’s a subtle difference that really makes a difference.The scenario – source data sheets that are structured differently!ĭoes Power Query sometimes seem too rigid? It’s great for defining a sequence of transformations to clean your data but requires the incoming data to be in a consistent format. It might be better to use Add Column because merging columns from the Transform tab adds a space for columns that have null values, whereas merging columns from the Add Column tab, ignores columns with null values. In our data, we have null when there is no middle name. This is great, but you would like to also have a column that merges those names. Suppose you have the names of people in three columns: first, middle and last name. In the drop-down choose from the end of the input. Now we choose Extract, Text After Delimiter and go to the Advanced options. Now to extract the last name when we have a middle name, we could start by selecting the column with the Full Name and go to Add Column. Text Before Delimiter and type a space to denote the delimiter. Suppose you have a column that has names such as Fred Smith, Fred J Smith, or Fred John Smith. What are the options? By Delimiter, By Number of Characters, By Positions, By Lowercase to Uppercase, By Uppercase to Lowercase, By Digit to Non-Digit, and By Non-Digit to Digit. Perhaps you have Department and Position. For example, you could have Country and Province. Suppose both types are text separated with a forward slash character. Suppose you’ve got two kinds of data in a single column. Split Two Pieces of Data in a Single Column If you see nothing in a cell (blank) it really means something, such as a space or perhaps another invisible character. If you see the word null in a cell, it really means nothing. Trim removes all spaces from the beginning and end of the text.ĭepending on the data and situation, you may want to replace blanks with null. Clean removes all the control characters from the text value. There is lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word, Trim, Clean, Add Prefix, and Add Suffix. Under the Format menu there are other choices. Go to Transform or Add Column, depending on what you need. Typically you would be using the space as a delimiter, but specify the delimiter here. Next, select your duplicated column, Transform, Split Column, by Delimter. First, select the FullName column, Add Column and Duplicate Column. Suppose we have a FullName column that we want to extract into FName and LName and still retain the original FullName column. Highlight the column, Add Column, from Text, Extract, Text Between Delimiters. If the color name is between delimiters, such as brackets or dashes, Power Query makes it easy. You want to create a new column with the color name in it. Perhaps it is a description of a product. Suppose we have a column with some text in it. By default, Excel creates a new table in a new worksheet when you click on Close and Load. After executing a few transformations, you can send the table back to Excel. When you are working with a column, always tell the Power Query Editor which column you are working with by selecting it first. This post covers a few common text transformations in Power Query.
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