Tried Power Query for the first time

  • Tried Power Query for the first time

    Posted by David Cutler on November 23, 2022 at 10:58 am

    With some advice from @Doug McLean and following in the footsteps of @Vince I have dipped my toes into the waters of Power Query in Excel. I still have a few things to figure out, but this is going to be a huge data washing time saver for me!

    Thank you both for posting all that you do about Power Query! Another great example of something that “I didn’t know that I didn’t know about”!

    David Cutler replied 1 year, 5 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Vince French

    Member
    November 23, 2022 at 12:12 pm
    Points: 11,999
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt I UC2 Brainery Blue Belt I

    Great news @David Cutler !

    The only problem that you’ll have soon is finding enough ‘dirty’ data to wash! 😅

  • Doug McLean

    Member
    November 23, 2022 at 1:43 pm
    Points: 12,689
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II

    a lot of people don’t know about it (and even more don’t realize its free)
    It really is one of the best tools out there for repeated data washing.
    Just mind your steps, because it can error out easily. Its best to have a nice consistent output of data so that your columns names are all the same all the time. That is one big key to using Power Query. The other is a consistent name of your markup summary, which a BatchConfig file will allow you to do. This will allow you to make your file path a bit more dynamic if you like

    • David Cutler

      Member
      November 23, 2022 at 2:43 pm
      Points: 23,447
      Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III

      I think the “consistency” is where I was getting messed up yesterday @Doug McLean

      Reading through some of your XCON materials I think what I need to do is setup a template file with the query in our “new project” directory template and save the exported file to the same directory every time with the same name every time… I have the export columns setup to be generated consistently, now I need to be more disciplined in my file naming…

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