Cheat Sheet: Power Query Functions one must know

Amit Chandak
5 min readAug 2, 2022

What is Power Query
Power Query is a data preparation and data transformation engine from Microsoft. It provides GUI for sourcing and transforming the data
Refer the link

How to open Power Query Editor in Power BI
Under Home Tab -> Transform Data -> Transform Data

Power BI Transform data

Change in Data Type. Under Home Tab → Data Type.

Power BI data type

Remove Empty Rows. This helps in removing the empty rows. Home → Remove Rows → Remove Blank Rows

Power BI Remove Rows

Remove Duplicate rows. This helps in removing the duplicate rows. Home → Remove Rows → Remove Duplicate

Power BI Remove Duplicate Rows

Remove Errors. This helps in removing the error rows. Home → Remove Rows → Remove Errors

Change Data Source. This helps in changing connection details. Or use to clear permissions. Home → Data source settings

Use First Row as Header. It helps move the first row as a header. Home → User First Row as Headers → User First Row as Headers

Power BI User First Row as Headers
Power BI User First Row as Headers

Remove Columns. Home →Remove Columns → Remove Columns. Remove columns: remove selected columns. Remove Other Columns-> Remove the columns other than selected columns.

Power BI Remove Columns

Merge Queries. It helps in combining two or more tables using various kinds of joins. It merges rows of both tables. Home → Merge Queries → Merge Queries/Merge Queries as New. Join options are inner, left, right, and full. You can merge in the selected table or in a new table.

Power BI Merge Queries
Power BI Merge Queries options

Append Queries. It appends two tables. It is like a union all in SQL/Sets. Home → Append Queries -> Append Queries/ Append Queries as New. You can Append it in the selected table or in a new table.

Power BI Append Queries

Unpivot Data. It can move columns to rows. Options are using select columns or other columns. Transform → Unpivot Columns/ Unpivot Other Columns

Power BI Unpivot Columns
Power BI Unpivot Columns

Pivot Data. It can convert rows to columns. Options are using select columns or other columns. Transform → Pivot Columns

Power BI Pivot Columns
Power BI Pivot Columns

Split Column. Transform → Split Columns. Options are By Delimiter, By Number of Characters, By Positions, and others

Power BI Split Columns

Format Columns. Transform → Format. Options are lowercase, UPPERCASE, Trim, and Clean.

Power BI Format

Extract Data. Transform → Extract. Options are Length, First Characters, Last Characters, Range, Text Before Delimiter, Text After Delimiter, and Text Between Delimiters

Power BI Extract

Fill Up/Down

Power BI Fill Up and Fill Down

Add Index Columns

Power BI Index Column

Extract Date Part in New Column

Power BI Column DatePart

Column Quality: Provide information about column quality. It provides percent of Valid, Error, and Empty.

Column Distribution: It shows you the distribution of values and provides a distinct and unique count. Unique are distinct that have only one occurrence.

Column Profile: It provides a complete column profile. Depending on the data type, one can get different statistics.

Please refer to my channel for more videos on these topics

Remove Empty and Remove duplicate Rows (Power Query)

How to Change Connection Details

Merge Tables (Power Query) :

Append Tables (Power Query)

Split Column (Power Query)

Split Column By Digit to Non-Digit & Non-Digit to Digit

Fill Up Fill Down (Power Query)

Add Index Column

These power query operations are useful for an interview and PL 300 examination preparation

Click Here to access all my blogs and videos in a jiffy via an exclusive visual glossary using Power BI.
Please like, share, and comment on these. Your suggestions on improvement, challenges, and new topics will help me explore more.

You Can watch my Power BI Tutorial Series on My Channel, Subscribe, Like, and share

--

--

Amit Chandak

Amit has 20+ years of experience in Business Intelligence, Analytics, Data Science. He is Chief Analytics Officer at Kanerika & Power BI community Super User