Queries and connections excel что это

What is Power Query?

Power Query is a business intelligence tool available in Excel that allows you to import data from many different sources and then clean, transform and reshape your data as needed.

It allows you to set up a query once and then reuse it with a simple refresh. It’s also pretty powerful. Power Query can import and clean millions of rows into the data model for analysis after. The user interface is intuitive and well laid out so it’s really easy to pick up. It’s an incredibly short learning curve when compared to other Excel tools like formulas or VBA.

The best part about it, is you don’t need to learn or use any code to do any of it. The power query editor records all your transformations step by step and converts them into the M code for you, similar to how the Macro recorder with VBA.

If you want to edit or write your own M code, you certainly can, but you definitely don’t need to.

Get the data used in this post to follow along.

What Can Power Query Do?

Imagine you get a sales report in a text file from your system on a monthly basis that looks like this.

Every month you need to go to the folder where the file is uploaded and open the file and copy the contents into Excel.

You then use the text to column feature to split out the data into new columns.

The system only outputs the sales person’s ID, so you need to add a new column to the data and use a VLOOKUP to get the salesperson associated with each ID. Then you need to summarize the sales by salesperson and calculate the commission to pay out.

You also need to link the product ID to the product category but only the first 4 digits of the product code relate to the product category. You create another column using the LEFT function to get the first 4 digits of the product code, then use a VLOOKUP on this to get the product category. Now you can summarize the data by category.

Maybe it only takes an hour a month to do, but it’s pretty mindless work that’s not enjoyable and takes away from time you can actually spend analyzing the data and producing meaningful insight.

With Power Query, this can all be automated down to a click of the refresh button on a monthly basis. All you need to do is build the query once and reuse it, saving an hour of work each and every month!

Where is Power Query?

Power Query is available as an add-in to download and install for Excel 2010 and 2013 and will appear as a new tab in the ribbon labelled Power Query. In 2016 it was renamed to Get & Transform and appears in the Data tab without the need to install any add-in.

Importing Your Data with Power Query

Importing your data with Power Query is simple. Excel provides many common data connections that are accessible from the Data tab and can be found from the Get Data command.

• Get data from a single file such as an Excel workbook, Text or CSV file, XML and JSON files. You can also import multiple files from within a given folder.
• Get data from various databases such as SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Analysis Services, SQL Server Analysis Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase, Teradata and SAP HANA databases.
• Get data from Microsoft Azure
• Get data from online services like Sharepoint, Microsoft Exchange, Dynamics 365, Facebook and Salesforce.
• Get data from other sources like a table or range inside the current workbook, from the web, a Microsoft Query, Hadoop, OData feed, ODBC and OLEDB.
• We can merge two queries together similar to joining two queries in SQL.
• We can append a query to another query similar to a union of two queries in SQL.

Note: The available data connection options will depend on your version of Excel.

There are a couple of the more common query types available in the top level of the ribbon commands found in the Get & Transform section of the Data tab. From here we can easily access the From Text/CSV, From Web and From Table/Range queries. These are just duplicated outside of the Get Data command for convenience of use, since you’ll likely be using these more frequently.

Depending on which type of data connection you choose, Excel will guide you through the connection set up and there might be several options to select during the process.

At the end of the setup process, you will come to the data preview window. You can view a preview of the data here to make sure it’s what you’re expecting. You can then load the data as is by pressing the Load button, or you can proceed to the query editor to apply any data transformation steps by pressing the Edit button.

A Simple Example of Importing Data in an Excel File

Let’s take a look at importing some data from an Excel workbook in action. We’re going to import an Excel file called Office Supply Sales Data.xlsx. It contains sales data on one sheet called Sales Data and customer data on another sheet called Customer Data. Both sheets of data start in cell A1 and the first row of the data contains column headers.

Go to the Data tab and select the Get Data command in the Get & Transform Data section. Then go to From File and choose From Workbook.

This will open a file picker menu where you can navigate to the file you want to import. Select the file and press the Import button.

After selecting the file you want to import, the data preview Navigator window will open. This will give you a list of all the objects available to import from the workbook. Check the box to Select multiple items since we will be importing data from two different sheets. Now we can check both the Customer Data and Sales Data.

When you click on either of the objects in the workbook, you can see a preview of the data for it on the right hand side of the navigator window. This is great for a sense check to make sure you’ve got the correct file.

When you’re satisfied that you’ve got everything you need from the workbook, you can either press the Edit or Load buttons. The edit button will take you to the query editor where you can transform your data before loading it. Pressing the load button will load the data into tables in new sheets in the workbook.

In this simple example, we will bypass the editor and go straight to loading the data into Excel. Press the small arrow next to the Load button to access the Load To options. This will give you a few more loading options.

We will choose to load the data into a table in a new sheet, but there are several other options. You can also load the data directly into a pivot table or pivot chart, or you can avoid loading the data and just create a connection to the data.

Now the tables are loaded into new sheets in Excel and we also have two queries which can quickly be refreshed if the data in the original workbook is ever updated.

The Query Editor

After going through the guide to connecting your data and selecting the Edit option, you will be presented with the query editor. This is where any data transformation steps will be created or edited. There are 6 main area in the editor to become familiar with.

1. The Ribbon – The user interface for the editor is quite similar to Excel and uses a visual ribbon style command center. It organizes data transformation commands and other power query options into 5 main tabs.
2. Query List – This area lists all the queries in the current workbook. You can navigate to any query from this area to begin editing it.
3. Data Preview – This area is where you will see a preview of the data with all the transformation steps currently applied. You can also access a lot of the transformation commands here either from the filter icons in the column headings or with a right click on the column heading.
4. Formula Bar – This is where you can see and edit the M code of the current transformation step. Each transformation you make on your data is recorded and appears as a step in the applied steps area.
5. Properties – This is where you can name your query. When you close and load the query to an Excel table, power query will create a table with the same name as its source query if the table name isn’t already taken. The query name is also how the M code will reference this query if we need to query it in another query.
6. Applied Steps – This area is a chronological list of all the transformation steps that have been applied to the data. You can move through the steps here and view the changes in the data preview area. You can also delete, modify or reorder any steps in the query here.

The Query List

The Query List has other abilities other than just listing out all the current workbook’s queries.

One of the primary functions of the query list is navigation. There’s no need to exit the query editor to switch which query you’re working on. You can left click on any query to switch. The query you’re currently on will be highlighted in a light green colour.

When you do eventually exit the editor with the close and load button, changes in all the queries you edited will be saved.

You can hide the query list to create more room for the data preview. Left click on the small arrow in the upper right corner to toggle the list between hidden and visible.

If you right click on any query in the list, there are a variety of options available.

• Copy and Paste – Copy and paste a query to make another copy of it.
• Delete – Delete the query. If you accidentally delete a query, there’s no undo button, but you can exit the query editor without saving via close and load to restore your query.
• Rename – Rename your query. This is the same as renaming it from the properties section on the left hand side of the editor.
• Duplicate – Make another copy of the query. This is the same as copy and paste but turns the process into one step.
• Move To Group – Place your queries into a folder like structure to keep them organised when the list gets large.
• Move Up and Move Down – Rearrange the order your queries appear in the list or within the folder groups to add to your organisational efforts. This can also be done by dragging and dropping the query to a new location.
• Create Function – Turn your query into a query function. They allow you to pass a parameter to the query and return results based on the parameter passed.
• Convert To Parameter – Allows you to convert parameters to queries or queries to parameters.
• Advanced Editor – Open the advanced editor to edit the M code for the query.
• Properties – Allows you to change the query name, add a description text and enable Fast Data Load option for the query.

If you right click any empty area in the query list, you can create a new query.

The Data Preview

The main job of the data preview area is to apply transformation steps to your data and show a preview of these steps you’re applying.

In the data preview area, you can select columns with a few different methods. A column will be highlighted in a light green colour when it’s selected.

• Select a single column with a left click on the column heading.
• Select multiple adjacent columns with a left click on the first column heading, then hold Shift and left click on the last column heading.
• Select multiple non-adjacent columns by holding Ctrl then left click on any column headings you want to select.

You can then apply any relevant data transformation steps on selected columns from the ribbon or certain steps can be accessed with a right click on the column heading. Commands that are not available to your selected column or columns will appear grayed out in the ribbon.

Each column has a data type icon on the left hand of the column heading. You can left click on it to change the data type of the column.

You can choose from decimal numbers, currency, whole numbers, percentages, date and time, dates, times, timezone, duration, text, Boolean, and binary.

Using the Locale option allows you to set the data type format using the convention from different locations. For example, if you wanted to display the date in the American m/d/yyyy format instead of the usual dd/mm/yyyy then you could select United States as the locale.

There’s a small table icon in the top left hand corner of the data preview, you can right click or left click this to access various actions that affect the whole table.

Renaming any column heading is really easy. Double left click on any column heading then type your new name and press Enter when you’re done.

You can change around the order of any of the columns with a left click and drag action. The green border between two columns will become the new location of the dragged column when you release the left click.

Each column also has a filter toggle on right hand side. Left click on this to sort and filter your data. This filter menu is very similar to the filters found in a regular spreadsheet and will work the same way.

The list of items shown is based on a sample of the data so may not contain all available items in the data. You can load more by clicking on the Load more text in blue.

Many transformations found in the ribbon menu are also accessible from the data preview area using a right click on the column heading. Some of the action you select from this right click menu will replace the current column. If you want to create a new column based, use a command from the Add Column tab instead.

The Applied Steps

Any transformation you make to your data will appear as a step in the Applied Steps area. It also allows you to navigate through your query. Left click on any step and the data preview will update to show all transformations up to and including that step.

You can insert new steps into the query at any point by selecting the previous step and then creating the transformation in the data preview. Power Query will then ask if you want to insert this new step. Careful though, as this may break the following steps that refer to something you changed.

You can delete any steps that were applied using the X on the left hand side of the step name in the Applied Steps area. Caution is needed though, as if any of the following steps depend on the step you’re trying delete, you will break your query. This is where Delete Until End from the right click menu can be handy.

A lot of transformation steps available in power query will have various user input parameters and other setting associated with them. If you apply a filter on the product column to show all items not starting with Pen, you might later decide you need to change this filter step to show all items not equal to Pen. You can make these edits from the Applied Step area.

Some of the steps will have a small gear icon on the right hand side. This allows you to edit the inputs and settings of that step.

You can rearrange the order the steps are performed in your query. Just left click on any step and drag it to a new location. A green line between steps will indicate the new location. This is another one you’ll need to be careful with as a lot of steps will depend on previous steps, and changing ordering can create errors because of this.

Right click on any step to access a menu of options.

• Edit Settings – This allows you to edit the settings of the step similar to using the gear icon on the right hand side of the step.
• Rename – This allows you to rename the steps label. Instead of the displaying the generic name like “Filtered Rows“, you could have this display something like “Filtered Product Rows on Pens” so you can easily identify what the step is doing.
• Delete – This deletes the current step similar to the X on the left hand side of the step.
• Delete Until End – This allows you to delete the current step plus all steps up until the end. Since steps can depend on previous steps, deleting all steps after a step is a good way to avoid any errors.
• Insert Step After – This allows you to insert a new step after the current step.
• Move Up and Move Down – This allows you to rearrange the query steps similar to the dragging and dropping method.
• Extract Previous – This can be a really useful option. It allows you to create a new copy of the query up to the selected step.

The Formula Bar

When you click on different steps of the transformation process in the Applied Steps area, the formula bar updates to show the M code that was created for that step. If the M code generated is longer than the formula bar, you can expand the formula bar using the arrow toggle on the right hand side.

You can edit the M code for a step directly from the formula bar without the need to open the advanced editor. In this example, we’ve changed our filter from “Pen” to “Chair” by typing in the formula bar and then pressing Enter or using the check mark on the left to confirm the change. Press Esc or use the X on the
left to discard any changes.

The File Tab

The File tab contains various options for saving any changes made to your queries as well as power query options and settings.

• Close & Load – This will save your queries and load your current query into an Excel table in the workbook.
• Close & Load To – This will open the Import Data menu with various data loading options to choose from.
• Discard & Close – This will discard any changes you made to the queries during your session in the editor and close the editor.

Note, you will still need to save the workbook in the regular way to keep any changes to queries if you close the workbook.

Close & Load and Close & Load To commands are also available from the Home tab.

Data Loading Options

When you use the Close & Load To option to exit the editor, this will open the Import Data menu.

You can choose to load the query to a table, pivot table, pivot chart or only create a connection for the query. The connection only option will mean there is no data output to the workbook, but you can still use this query in other queries. This is a good option if the query is an intermediate step in a data transformation process.

You’ll also be able to select the location to load to in your workbook if you selected either a table, pivot table or pivot chart in the previous section. You can choose a cell in an existing worksheet or load it to a new sheet that Excel will create for you automatically.

The other option you get is the Add this data to the Data Model. This will allow you to use the data output in Power Pivot and use other Data Model functionality like building relationships between tables. The Data Model Excel’s new efficient way of storing and using large amounts of data.

The Queries & Connections Window

When you’re working outside of the power query editor, you can see and interact with all the queries in the workbook through the Queries & Connections window. To open this, go to the Data tab in the regular Excel ribbon, then press the Queries & Connections command button found in the Queries & Connections section.

When opened it will be docked to the right hand side of the workbook. You can undock it by left clicking on the title and dragging it. You can drag it to the left hand side and dock it there or leave it floating. You can also resize the window by left clicking and dragging the edges.

This is very similar to the query list in the editor and you can perform a lot of the same actions with a right click on any query.

One option worth noting that’s not in the query list right click menu, is the Load To option. This will allow you to change the loading option for any query, so you can change any Connection only queries to load to an Excel table in the workbook.

Another thing worth noting is when you hover over a query with the mouse cursor, Excel will generate a Peek Data Preview. This will show you some basic information about the query.

• Data Preview – This is a live preview of the data similar to when first setting up a query.
• Columns – This will give you a list of all the columns contained in the final results of the query along with a count of how many columns there are. Clicking on any of them will highlight the column in the data preview.
• Last Refreshed – This will tell you when the data was last refreshed.
• Load Status – This displays whether the data is loaded to a table, pivot table, pivot chart or is a connection only.
• Data Sources – This will show you the source of the data along with a count of the number of files if you’re it’s a from folder query.
• View in Worksheet – Clicking on this will take you to the output table if the query is loaded to a table, pivot table or pivot chart.

You can also access this Peek view by right clicking on the query and selecting Show the peek.

There are also some useful messages displayed in the Queries & Connections window for each query. It will show you if the query is a connection only, if there were any errors when the query last ran, or how many rows loaded.

The Home Tab

The Home tab contains all the actions, transformations, and settings that will affect the whole table.

1. Close – You can access the Close & Load and Close & Load To options from here. These are also available in the File tab menu.
2. Query – You can refresh the data preview for the current query or all query connections. You can also open the properties settings and the advanced editor for the current query and there are options under the Manage button to delete, duplicate or reference the current query.
3. Manage Columns – You can navigate to specific columns and choose to keep or remove columns.
4. Reduce Rows – You can manage the rows of data from this section. There are lots of options to either keep certain rows or remove certain rows. Keep or remove the top N rows, the bottom N rows, a particular range of rows, alternating rows, duplicate rows or rows with errors. One option only available for removing rows is to remove blank rows.
5. Sort – You can sort any column in either ascending or descending order.
6. Transform – This section contains a mix of useful transformation options.
   • Split Columns – This allows you to split the data in a column based on a delimiter or character length.
   • Group By – This allows you to group and summarize your data similar to a Group By in SQL.
   • Data Type – This allows you to change the data type of any column.
   • Use First Row as Headers – This allows you to promote the first row of data to column headings or demote the column headings to a row of data.
   • Replace Values – This allows you to find and replace any value from a column.
7. Combine – This sections contains all the commands for joining your query to with other queries. You can merge, append queries or combine files when working with a from folder query.
8. Parameters – Power Query allows you to create parameters for your queries. For example when setting up a from folder query, you may want the folder path to be a parameter as so you can easily change the location. You can create and manage existing parameters from this section.
9. Data Sources – This section contains the data source settings including permissions management for any data sources that require passwords to access.
10. New Query – You can create new queries from new data sources or previously used data sources from this section.

The Difference Between the Transform and Add Column Tabs

The bulk of all transformations available in power query can be accessed through either the Transform tab or the Add Column tab.

You might think there is a lot of duplication between these two tabs. For example, both tabs contain a From Text section with a lot of the same commands. It’s not really the case, there is a subtle difference!

When you use a command from the Add Column tab that is found in both tabs, it will create a new column with the transformed data and the original column will stay intact. Whereas using the equivalent command from the Transform tab will change the original column and no new column is created.

This is a critical point to be aware of!

The Transform Tab

The Transform tab sections.

1. Table – This section contains commands that will transform the entire table. You can group and aggregate your query, promote rows to headers, demote headers to rows, transpose your data, reverse row order, and count rows.
2. Any Column – This section contains commands that will work on any column of data regardless of data type. You can change the data type, automatically detect and change the data type, rename the column heading, find and replace values, fill values down (or up) a column to replace any blanks or nulls with the value above it (or below it), pivot or unpivot columns, move columns to a new location or convert a column to a list.
3. Text Column – This section contains commands for text data. You can split columns with a delimiter, format the case, trim and clean, merge two or more columns together, extract text, and parse XML or JSON objects.
4. Number Column – This section contains commands for numerical data. You can perform various aggregations like sums and averages, perform standard algebra operations or trigonometry and round numbers up or down.
5. Date & Time Column – This section contains commands for date and time data. You can extract information from your dates, times and duration data.
6. Structured Column – This section contains commands for working with nested data structures such as when your column contains tables.

The Add Column Tab

The Add Column tab contains a lot of commands similar to the Transform tab, but the key difference is they will create a new column with the transformation.

1. General – This section allows you to add new columns based on formulas or custom functions. You can also add index colummns or duplicate a column from here.
2. From Text – Very similar to the From Text section in the Transform tab, but these commands will create a new column with the transformation.
3. From Number – Very similar to the From Number section in the Transform tab, but these commands will create a new column with the transformation.
4. From Date & Time – Very similar to the From Date & Time section in the Transform tab, but these commands will create a new column with the transformation.

The View Tab

The View tab is quite sparse in comparison to the other tabs. There are no transformation commands to be found in it. Most Power Query users will rarely need to use this area, but there are still a few things worth knowing about.

1. Layout – This section allows you to either show or hide the Query Setting pane (which contain the properties and applied steps) and the Formula Bar.
2. Data Preview – This section allows you to show or hide whitespace characters or turn the font into a monospace font in the data preview area. This is handy when dealing with data delimited by a certain number of characters.
3. Columns – This allows you to go to and select a certain column in the data preview. This command is also available in the Home tab.
4. Parameters – This allows you to enable parameterization in data sources and transformation steps.
5. Advanced – This will open the advanced query editor which shows the M code for the query. This is also available from the Home tab.
6. Dependencies – This will open a diagram view of the query dependencies in the workbook.

In particular, the Query Dependencies view is a useful resource that allows you to see a visual representation of the data transformation process flow.

Conclusions

Power Query can seem overwhelming at first to someone new to it all, but the UI is very well laid out and easy to catch on to. While it might be new to a user, a lot of the concepts should be familiar to an Excel user already.

Getting familiar with all the parts of the editor and the layout of the ribbon tabs is an essential first step in exploring Power Query and incorporating it into your everyday work.

While there is a lot to learn about Power Query, it is worth putting in the time to learn. There is massive potential to save time in repetitive data cleaning and formatting tasks with it. It’s one of the most powerful and useful tools that has been added to Excel since pivot tables.

Want even more power query goodness? Then check out these Amazing Power Query Tips to help you get the most out of it!

Written by Puneet for Excel 2010, Excel 2013, Excel 2016, Excel 2019

If you are one of those people who work with data a lot, you can be anyone (Accountant, HR, Data Analyst, etc.), power query can be your power tool.

Let me come straight to the point, Power Query is one of the advanced Excel skills that you need to learn and in this tutorial, you will be exploring power query in detail and will be learning to transform data with it.

Let’s get started.

What is Excel Power Query

Power Query is an Excel add-in that you can use for ETL. That means, you can extract data from different sources, transform it, and then load it to the worksheet. You can say POWER QUERY is a data cleansing machine as it has all the options to transform the data. It is real-time and records all the steps that you perform.

Why Should You Use Power Query (Benefits)?

If you have this question in your mind, here’s my answer for you:

• Different Data Sources: You can load data into a power query editor from different data sources, like, CSV, TXT, JSON, etc.
• Transform Data Easily: Normally you use formulas and pivot tables for data transformations but with POWER QUERY you can do a lot of things just with clicks.
• It’s Real-Time: Write a query once and you can refresh it every time there is a change in data, and it will transform the new data which you have updated.

Let me share an example:

Imagine you have 100 Excel files that have data from 100 cities and now your boss wants you to create a report with all the data from those 100 files. OKAY, if you decide to open each file manually and copy and paste data from those files and you need at least one hour for this.

But with the power query, you can do it in minutes. Feeling excited? Good.

Further in this tutorial, you will learn how to use Power Query with a lot of examples, but first, you need to understand its concept.

The Concept of Power Query

To learn power query, you need to understand its concept that works in 3 steps:

1. Get Data

Power query allows you to get data from different sources like web, CSV, text files, multiple workbooks from a folder, and a lot of other sources where we can store data.

2. Transform Data

After getting data in the power query you have a whole bunch of options that you can use to transform it and clean it. It creates queries for all the steps you perform (in a sequence one step after another).

3. Load Data

From the power query editor, you can load the transformed data to the worksheet, or you can directly create a pivot table or a pivot chart or create a data connection only.

Where is Power Query (How to Install it)?

Below you can see how to install access to the power query in the different versions of Microsoft Excel.

Excel 2007

If you are using Excel 2007, I’m sorry PQ is not available for this version so you need to upgrade to the latest version of Excel (Excel for Office 365, Excel 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel 2010).

Excel 2010 and Excel 2013

For 2010 and 2013, you need to install an add-in separately which you can download from this link and once you install it, you’ll get a new tab in the Excel ribbon, like below:

• First, download the add-in from here (Microsoft’s Official Website).
• Once you have downloaded the file, open it and follow the instructions.
• After that, you’ll automatically get the “Power Query” tab on your Excel ribbon.

If somehow that “POWER QUERY” tab doesn’t appear, there is no need to worry about it. You can add it using the COM Add-ins option.

• Go to File Tab ➜ Options ➜ Add-ins.

• In “Add-In” options, select “COM Add-ins” and click GO.
• After that, tick mark “Microsoft Power Query for Excel”.

• In the end, click OK.

Excel 2016, 2019, Office 365

If you are using Excel 2016, Excel 2019, or you have OFFICE 365 subscription, it’s already there on the Data tab, as a group named “GET & TRANSFORM” (I like this name, do you?).

Excel Mac

If you are using Excel in Mac I’m afraid that there is no power query add-in for it and you can only refresh an existing query but you can’t create a new one and or even edit a query (LINK).

Power Query Editor

Power Query has its own editor where you can get the data, perform all the steps to create queries, and then load it to the worksheet. To open the power query editor, you need to go to the Data Tab and in the Get & Transform ➜ Get Data ➜ Launch Power Query Editor.

Below is the first look at the editor which you will get when you open it.

Now, let’s explore each section in detail:

1. Ribbon

Let’s look at all the available tabs:

• File: From the file tab, you can load the data, discard the editor, and open the query settings.
• Home: In the HOME Tab, you have options to manage the loaded data, like, delete and move columns and rows.
• Transform: This tab has all the options which you need to transform and clean the data, like merge columns, transpose, etc.
• Add Column: Here you have the option to add new columns to the data you have in the power editor.
• View: From this tab, you can make changes to the view for the power query editor and data loaded.

2. Applied Steps

On the right side of the editor, you have a query setting pane which includes the name of the query and all the applied steps in a sequence.

When you right-click on a step you have a list of options that you can perform, like, rename, delete, edit, move up or down, etc. and when you click on a step, the editor will take you to the transformation done on that step.

Look at the below where you have the total five steps applied and when I click on the 4th step it takes me to step four’s transformation where the columns name hasn’t changed.

3. Queries

The queries pane on the left side lists all the queries you have in the workbook right now. It’s basically one place where you can manage all the queries.

When you right-click on a query name you can see all the options that you can use (copy, delete, duplicate, etc.)

You can also create a new query by simply right click on the blank space on the queries pane and then select the option for the data source.

4. Formula Bar

As I said, whenever you apply a step in the editor it generates M code for that step, and you can see that code in the formula bar. You can simply click on the formula bar to edit the code.

Once you learn to use M code you can also create step by writing the code and simply clicking on the “FX” button to enter a custom step.

5. Data Preview

The data preview area looks like an Excel worksheet but there’s a little different than a normal worksheet where you can edit a cell or data directly. When you load data into the editor (we will do it in a while) it shows all the columns with the headers with the columns name and then rows with data.

At the top of each column, you can see the data type of the data in the column. When you load data into the editor the power query applies the right data type (almost every time) to each column automatically.

You can click on the top left button on the column header to change the data type applied to the column. It has a list of all the data types from where you can.

And on the left side of the column header there you have the filter button which you can use to filter values from the column. Note: When you filter values from a column, the power query takes it as one step and lists it in the applied steps.

If you right-click on the header of the column you can see that there is a menu that includes a list of the options which you can use to transform the data and use any of the options and PQ stores it as a step in the applied steps.

Data Sources for Power Query

The best part of the power query is you have the option to get data from multiple sources and transform that data and then load it into the worksheet. When you click on the Get Data in the GET & TRANSFORM you can see the complete list of data sources that you can get data load into the editor.

Now let’s look at some of the data sources:

• From Table/Range: With this option, you can load data into the power query editor directly from the active worksheet.
• From Workbook: From a different workbook that you have on your computer. You just need to locate that file using an open dialog box and it will get data from that file automatically.
• From Text/CSV: Get data from a text file or a comma-separated file and then you can load it into the worksheet.
• From Folder: It takes all the files from the folder and load data from them into the power query editor. (See this: Combine Excel Files from a Folder).
• From Web: With this option, you get data from a web address, imagine you have a File that is stored on the web or you have a web page from where you need to get the data.

How to Load Data into Power Query Editor

Now let’s learn to load data into the power query editor. Here you have a list of student names and their scores (LINK).

You will be loading data directly from the worksheet, so you need to open the file first and then follow the below steps:

• First, apply an Excel table to the data (Even if you don’t do it Excel will do it for you before loading data into PQ editor).
• Now, select a cell from the table and click on the “From Table/Range” (Data Tab Get & Transform).

• Once you click on the button, Excel confirms the range of data to apply an Excel table to it.

• At this point, you have the data into the power query editor, and it looks something like below.

• Here you can see:
  • In the Formula bar, PQ has generated the M code for the table you have just loaded into the editor.
  • On the left side of the editor, you have the queries pane where you have the list of the queries.
  • On the right side, in the query settings, you have the section called “Applied Steps” where you have all the steps listed. Note: You must be thinking that you haven’t performed any “Changed Type” but there’s a step called “Changed Type” is there. Let me tell you the SMARTNESS of POWER QUERY when you load data into the editor it checks and applies the correct data types for all the columns automatically.

Power Query Examples (Tips and Tricks)

You can learn to perform some of the basic tasks which you normally do with functional formulas in Excel, but with power query, you can do it with a few clicks:

1. Replace Values

You have a list of values, and you want to replace a value or some values with something else. Well, with the help of the power query you can create a query and replaces those values, in no time.

In the below list, you need to replace my name “Puneet” with “Punit”.

• First, edit the list in the power query editor.
• After that, in the power query editor, go to “Transform Tab” and click “Replace Values”.

• Now, in “Value to Find”, enter “Puneet” and in “Replace With” enter “Punit” and after that, click OK.

• Once you click OK all the values get replaced with the new values and now, click on “Close and Load” to load data in the worksheet.

2. Sort Data

Just like normal sorting, you can sort data by using power query and I’m using the same name list which you have used in the above example.

• First, load data in the power query editor.
• In the Home tab, you have two sorting buttons (Ascending and Descending).
• Click on any of these buttons to sort.

3. Remove Columns

Let’s say you got data from somewhere and you need to delete some columns from it. The thing is, you have to delete those columns every time you add new data, right? But, power query can take care of this.

• Select the column or multiple columns that you want to delete.

• Now, right-click and select “Remove”.

Quick Tip: There’s also an option to “Remove Other Columns” where you can delete all the unselected columns.

4. Split Column

Just like the text to column option, you have “Split Column” in power query. Let me tell you how it works.

• Select the column and go to the Home Tab ➜ Transform ➜ Split Column ➜ By Delimiter.

• Select the custom from the drop-down and enter “-” into it.
• Now, here you have three different options to split a column.
  • Left-most Delimiter
  • Right-most Delimiter
  • Each occurrence of the delimiter

If you have only one delimiter in a cell, all three will work in the same way, but if you have more than one delimiter then you have to choose accordingly.

5. Rename a Column

You can simply rename a column by right click and then click on the “Rename”.

Quick Tip: Let say you have a query for renaming a column and someone else rename it by mistake. You can restore that name just with a click.

6. Duplicate Column

In Power Query, there is a simple option to create a duplicate column. All you need to do is right-click on the column for which you want to create a duplicate column and then click on “Duplicate Column”.

7. Transpose Column or Row

In the power query, transposing is a cup of cake. Yes, just one click.

• Once you load data into the power query editor, you just need to select the column(s) or row(s).
• Go to Transform Tab ➜ Table ➜ Transpose.

8. Replace/Remove Errors

Normally for replacing or removing errors in Excel you can use find and replace option or a VBA code. But in power query, it’s a whole lot easier. Look at the below column where you have some errors and you can remove as well as replace them.

When you right-click on the column, you’ll have both of the options.

• Replace Errors
• Remove Errors

9. Change Data Type

You have data in a column but it’s not in the right format. So, every time you need to change its format.

• First, edit data into the power query editor.
• After that, select the column and go to the Transform Tab.
• Now, from data type select the “Date” as a type.

10. Add Column from Examples

In the power query, there is an option to add a sample column which is not actually a sample related to the current column.

Let me give you an example:

Imagine you need day names from a date column. Instead of using a formula or any other option, you can use, you can use the “Add Column from Examples”.

Here’s how to do this:

• Right-click on a column and click on “Add Column from Examples”.

• Here you’ll get a blank column. Click on the first cell of the column to get the list of values you can insert.

• Select “Day of Week Name from Date” and click OK.

Boom! your new column is here.

11. Change Case

You have the following options for changing the case of text in power query.

• Lower Case
• Upper Case
• Capitalize Each Word

You can do it by right click on a column and select any of the above three options. Or, go to the Transform Tab ➜ Text Column ➜ Format.

12. Trim and Clean

To clear data or delete unwanted spaces you can use TRIM and CLEAN options in power query. Steps are simple:

• Right-click on a column or select all the columns if you have multiple columns.
• Go to Transform Tab ➜ Text Column ➜ Format.
  1. TRIM: To remove trailing and leading whitespaces from a cell.
  2. CLEAN: To remove non-printable characters from a cell.

13. Add Prefix/Suffix

If you are a formula savvy, then I’m sure you agree with me that extracting text or number from a cell requires to combine different functions. But power query has solved a lot of these things in a good way. You have seven ways to extract values from a cell.

15. Only Date or Time

It happens a lot of times that you have date and time, both in a single cell, but needs one of them.

• Select the column where you have the date and time combined.
• If you want:
  • Date: Right Click ➜ Transform ➜ Date Only.
  • Time: Right Click ➜ Transform ➜ Time Only.

16. Combine Date and Time

Now you know how to separate date and time. But the next you need to know how to combine them.

• First, select the date column and click on the “Date Only” option.
• After that, select both columns (Date and Time) and go to the transform tab and from the “Date and Time Column” Group go to Date and click “Combine Date and Time”.

17. Rounding Numbers

Here are the following options which you have for rounding numbers.

• Round Down: To round down a number. 
• Round Up: To round up a number. 
• Round: You can choose up to how my decimals you can round.

Here are the steps:

• Select the column and right-click ➜ Transform ➜ Round.
  1. Round Down: To round down a number.
  2. Round Up: To round up a number.
  3. Round: You can choose up to how my decimals you can round.

Note: When you select the “#3 Round” option you need to enter the number of decimals to round.

18. Calculations

There are options that you can use to perform calculations (a lot of). You can find all these options on the Transform Tab (in Number Column group).

• Basic
• Statistics
• Scientific
• Trigonometry
• Rounding
• Information

To perform any of this calculation you need to select the column and then the option.

19. Group by

Let’s say you have a large data set and you want to create a summary table. Here’s what you need to do:

• In the Transform tab, click on the ‘Group by“ button and you’ll get a dialog box.

• Now, from this dialog box select the column with which you want to group and after that, add a name, select the operation, and the column where you have values.

• In the end, click OK.

Note: There are also some advanced options in the “Group by” option which you can use to create a multi-level group table.

20. Remove Negative Values

In one of my blog posts, I have listed seven methods to remove the negative signs and the power query is one of them. Just right click on a column and go to transform option and then click on “Absolute value”.

This instantly removes all the negative signs from the values.

How to Load Data Back to the Worksheet

Once you transform your data, you can load it to the worksheet and use it for further analysis. On the home tab there is a button called “Close and Load” when you click on it you get a drop-down which has options further:

• Close and Load
• Close and Load To

• Once you click on the button, it will show the following options:

• Select how you want to view this data in your worksheet.
  • Table
  • Pivot Table Report:
  • Pivot Chart
  • Only Create Connection
  • Where do you want to put the Data?
    • Existing Worksheet
    • New Worksheet.
  • Add this data to the Data Model.
• Just select the table option and new worksheet and don’t tick mark the data model and click OK.

• The moment you click OK, it adds a new worksheet with the data.

More Examples to Learn

Auto Refresh a Query

From all the examples that I have mentioned here, this one is the most important. When you create a query, you can make it auto-refresh (you can set a timer).

And here are the steps:

• On the Data tab, click on “Queries & Connections” and you’ll get the Queries and Connection pane on the right side of the window.

• Now, right-click on the query and tick mark “Refresh every” and enter the minutes.

How to use a Formula and a Function in Power Query

Just like you can use functions and formulas in Excel worksheet, the power query has its own list of functions that you can use. The basics of function and formulas in power query are the same as Excel’s worksheet functions.

In PQ, you need to add a new custom column to add a function or a formula.

Let’s take an example: In the below data (already in the PQ editor) you have the first name and last name (DOWNLOAD LINK).

Imagine you need to merge both names and create a column for the full name. In this case, you can enter a simple formula to concatenate names from both columns.

• First, go to the Add Column tab and click on the “Custom Column”.

• Now in the custom column dialog box, enter the name of the new column “Full Name” or anything you want to name the new column.

• The custom column formula is the place where you need to enter the formula. So enter the below formula in it:

[First Name]&" "&[Last Name]

• When you enter a formula in the “custom column formula”, PQ verify the formula that you have entered and shows a message “No syntax error have been detected” and if there’s an error it will show an error message based on the type of the error.
• Once you enter the formula and that formula doesn’t have any errors in it, simply press OK.
• Now you have a new column at the end of the data which has values from two columns (first name and the last name).

How to use a Function in Power Query

In the same way, you can also use a function while adding a custom column and Power Query has a huge list of functions that you can use.

Let’s understand how to use a function with an easy and simple example. I’m continuing the above example where we have added a new column by combining the first name and last name.

But now, you need to convert that full name text which you have in that column into the upper case. The function which you can use is “Text.Upper”. As the name suggests, it converts a text to an upper-case text.

• First, go to the add column tab and click on the custom column.

• Now in the custom column dialog box, enter the column name and below formula in the custom column formula box:

Text.Upper([Full Name])

• And when you click OK it creates a new column with all the names in the uppercase.
• The next thing is to delete the old column and rename the new column. So right-click on the first column and select remove.

• In the end, rename the new column his “Full Name”.

There are a total of 700 functions that you can use in power query while adding a new column and here is the complete list provided by Microsoft for these functions, do check them out.

How to Edit a Query in PQ

If you want to make some changes in the query which is already in your workbook you can simply edit it and then make those changes. On the Data tab, there’s a button named Queries and Connections.

When you click on this button, it opens a pane on the right side that lists all the queries that you have in the current workbook.

You can right-click on the query name and select edit and you will get it in the power query editor to edit.

When you edit a query, you can see that all the steps which you have performed earlier are listed in the “Applied Steps” that you can also edit or you can perform new steps.

And once you are done with your changes you can simply click on the “Close & Load” button.

Export and Import Connections

If you have a connection which you have used for a query and now you want to share that connection with someone else, you can export that connection as an odc file.

On the query table, there’s a button called “Export Connection” and when you click on it, it allows you to save that query’s connection in your system.

And if you want to import a connection that is shared by someone else, you can simply go to the Data tab and in the Get & Transform click on the existing connections.

And then click on the “Browse for More” button from where you can locate the connection file which has been shared with you and import it to your workbook.

Power Query Language (M Code)

As I mentioned earlier that for every step you performed in power query it generates a code (at the backend) which is called M Code. On the Home tab, there is a button called “Advanced Editor” which you can use to see the code.

And when you click on the advanced editor it will show you the code editor and that code looks something like below:

M is a case sensitive language and like all the other languages it uses variables and expressions. The basic structure of code looks like below where the code starts with the LET expression.

In this code, we have two variables and the values defined to them. In the end, to get the value, IN expression has been used. Now when you click OK it will return the value assigned to the variable “Variablename” in the result.

Check out this resource to learn more about Power Query Language.

In the End

You can’t afford to avoid the POWER QUERY. If you think like this, a lot of things which we do with Excel functions or VBA codes can be automated using it, and I’m sure this tutorial inspires you to use it more and more.

But now you need to tell me one thing. Which thing do you like most about the POWER QUERY?

You must check out these tutorials

• Create a Pivot Table from Multiple Files

This post looks at how to use the Power Query editor to edit existing queries in Excel. We’ve seen some of this in a previous post of this Power Query series, but now we’ll go a lot deeper.

Download the example file

I recommend you download the example file for this post. Then you’ll be able to work along with examples and see the solution in action, plus the file will be useful for future reference.

Download the file: 0091 Example 7 – Edit Queries.xlsx

All the examples in this post use 0091 Example 7 – Edit Queries.xlsx. So, open up the file, and let’s get going.

As with many features of Power Query, there are multiple ways to access the same action. Opening the Power Query editor to edit an existing query is no different; there are loads of ways to do it. I will briefly cover the most common below, though we only need to know one or two.

Queries & Connections

In my opinion, the easiest place to open the Power Query editor is from the Queries and Connections pane. Click Data > Queries & Connections from the ribbon.

The Queries & Connections pane opens. Even within here are three ways to open the Power Query editor:

1. Double-click on the name of a query.
2. Right-click on the query and select edit.
3. Hover over a query name (don’t click, just hover), Excel displays the query summary. Click the Edit option at the bottom.

All 3 of these options will get you into the Power Query editor.

Launch Power Query editor

We can get directly into the Power Query editor from the ribbon; we don’t need to select any specific query. Click Data > Get Data > Launch Power Query Editor….

Query ribbon

Clicking on a Table containing a query (green striped format by default) will reveal the Query ribbon. Then, Click Query > Edit.

Also, right-clicking on a Table and selecting Table > Edit Query can get to the query editor.

Inside the Power Query editor

Once the Power Query editor opens, we can edit any query in the workbook. If the queries pane on the left is closed, click on the > arrow to expand the list. Once the queries pane is open, click on any individual query to activate it for viewing or editing.

Edit transformations

Now that we’ve selected a query, we are ready to start editing. For the remainder of this post, we are working with the example file. We will to modify the existing from that file transformations.

Use one of the methods above for opening Power Query, then we can get started editing transformations.

Basic settings

The gear icon exists next to many of the steps within the applied steps list. Clicking the icon reveals the options window for that specific step.

Using the Example file, select the Top Customers query, then click on the gear icon next to the Keep First Rows step. The Keep Top Rows window opens. The query is currently set to show 5 customers, change this to 3, and click OK.

Woop, Woop! We have just edited the query.

Adding steps

The applied steps box is also used to insert, move and delete steps. Let’s take a look at that in this section.

Select the TopCustomers query and click on the step called Calculated End of Month. The data preview shows all the transformation steps up to the end of the current selection.

Now let’s insert a new step. Click on the filter drop-down of the Date column and select only 31 January 2019 (depending on your local date format it may appear slightly different for you). Then, click OK.

A new step appears below the previously selected step.

Clicking through the remaining steps to view the transformations, there should be no issues with this specific example. However, this will not always be the case. When changing steps in the middle of a query, it can cause errors later on, as the changes we make may not flow through into the subsequent steps.

Click on the Removed Columns step. Change the header of the Date column to Month End.

A warning message is displayed. Not all warning messages are bad; you get to choose if it is relevant to your scenario or not. We are trying to force an error in this example, so please click Insert.

The new step is added.

Next, click on the Calculated End of Month step. Oh dear… there is an error. This is because the Calculated End of Month step is trying to find a column called Date, which is no longer exists (we renamed it to Month End Date). If you still have the Formula Bar open, you can see the reference to the Date column, which is no longer available (see the screenshot below).

Now we have some choices. Do we need to insert that step at this point? Should we delete and re-perform the affected steps? Should we edit the M code of the remaining steps to replicate the change? Only you can make this decision.

Once you’ve been in this situation a few times, you’ll soon work out the best options. I recommend only deleting the remaining steps and re-performing the transformations as a last resort. With some practice and perseverance, you’ll learn how to fix the most common errors by using the formula bar or inserting additional steps.

Deleting steps

The example above illustrates the potential issues from editing existing steps; let’s delete the Renamed Columns step that we added. Click on the X next to the step to remove it.

Deleting is easy, but be aware that this can cause errors too.

Moving steps

To move a step up or down, there are again more user-interface options:

1. Right-click on the step and click Move Up or Move Down from the menu (see screenshot below)
2. Click on a single step, hold the mouse button down and drag the step to a new location. This is my preferred option.

As you can imagine, moving steps has the same issues as inserting steps; it can result in errors.

Where did my step go?

Power Query is smart; it groups similar actions together where it can.

Select the SalesByDay query and ensure you have selected the last step, which is Removed Columns1. Now, let us change the headers of each column:

• Change Day Name to Day – a new step is added.
• Change 31/01/2019 (or your local date equivalent) to Number of Sales – a new step is not added.

Look at the applied steps again… there is only one step added. Where did the second step go?

Take a closer look at the Formula Bar; you will see that both the steps have been combined into one.

This occurs when like-for-like steps are performed one after another. It certainly helps to keep the applied steps significantly smaller than they might be otherwise.

M code: Formula bar & Advanced Editor

OK, things are about to get serious – we are going to edit the M code! We can edit the code directly in two ways:

• Formula Bar
• Advanced Editor.

I prefer the Formula Bar method. So, let’s start there.

Formula bar

If the formula bar is not visible, we can turn it on by clicking View > Formula Bar from the ribbon.

Select the SalesByDay query and click on the Sorted Rows step.

The formula bar will show the following:

Even though might not be able to write M code from scratch, but that doesn’t mean we can’t edit the code with a bit of common sense. In the formula bar, change the text “Day of Week” to “Day Name”. If you look at the data preview window, the Day Name column is now sorted in ascending order.

Next, change the text which says Order.Ascending to Order.Descending. Check the preview window again, and notice the order has changed.

The final formula should look like this:

See, it’s not so difficult to edit the M code after all 😀

Advanced Editor

The changes we saw above can also be applied in the Advanced Editor. Click on Home > Advanced Editor.

The Advanced Editor shows every step in the query. First, we need to identify the relevant code. To do this look down the left side of the code. In the applied steps the step was called Sort Rows in the Power Query editor it is the #”Sort Rows” steps we require.

We can then make the same changes as noted in the formula bar section above (see the highlighted section below).

Close and Load into Excel

Finally, let’s close this out by clicking Close and Load. The changes we’ve made are refreshed into the Tables on the worksheet.

An important point to note is that Close & Load does not just apply to the active query, but to all queries in the workbook. So, if we’ve edited multiple queries due the session, they will all be updated simultaneously.

Close without saving changes

After editing a query, we may decide we don’t want to load the changes into Excel. To discard the changes, click File > Discard and Close.

Alternatively,  we can click the [X] close button (top right of the window). A confirmation box ensures we don’t lose our changes by mistake. Clicking Discard returns us back to Excel without making any changes.

Wrap-up

This post shows us how to open and edit within the Power Query editor. While we have only made basic transformations, the methods shown apply to more advanced transformations too.

Read more posts in this series

1. Introduction to Power Query
2. Get data into Power Query – 5 common data sources
3. DataRefresh Power Query in Excel: 4 ways  &  advanced options
4. Use the Power Query editor to update queries
5. Get to know Power Query Close & Load options
6. Power Query Parameters: 3 methods
7. Common Power Query transformations (50+ powerful transformations explained)
8. Power Query Append: Quickly combine many queries into 1
9. Get data from folder in Power Query: combine files quickly
10. List files in a folder & subfolders with Power Query
11. How to get data from the Current Workbook with Power Query
12. How to unpivot in Excel using Power Query (3 ways)
13. Power Query: Lookup value in another table with merge
14. How to change source data location in Power Query (7 ways)
15. Power Query formulas (how to use them and pitfalls to avoid)
16. Power Query If statement: nested ifs & multiple conditions
17. How to use Power Query Group By to summarize data
18. How to use Power Query Custom Functions
19. Power Query – Common Errors & How to Fix Them
20. Power Query – Tips and Tricks