Forum Discussion
Formatting Postcodes
Hello,
I have a .csv of delivery information with postcodes that I need to format correctly before I import into Power BI.
Below are the different incorrect ways that postcode information can come to me incorrect and how I'd like to fix the postcodes.
| Record # | Postal Code_Incorrect (how i receive them) | Postal Code_Fixed (what I want to transform them into). |
| 1 | A99AA | A9 9AA |
| 2 | A999AA | A99 9AA |
| 3 | AA99AA | AA9 9AA |
| 4 | AA999AA | AA99 9AA |
| 5 | A9A9AA | A9A 9AA |
| 6 | AA9A9AA | AA9A 9AA |
| 7 | 99999 | 99999 |
How can I correctly format the postcodes?
I'm really new to Power BI so in any response please assume I'm a total idiot - as basic instructions as possible please.
Thanks for your help 🙂
J
Hi,
- Open Power Query editor.
- Select column 'Postal Code_Incorrect (how i receive them)'.
- Change data typ to text.
- Tab Add Column > Column From Examples
- Enter in the first row the postal code A9 9AA, press Enter.
- Enter in the second row the postal code A99 9AA, press Enter.
- Ok.
- Tab Transform > Format > UPPERCASE.
- Done!
Regards FrankAT
3 Replies
Hi,
- Open Power Query editor.
- Select column 'Postal Code_Incorrect (how i receive them)'.
- Change data typ to text.
- Tab Add Column > Column From Examples
- Enter in the first row the postal code A9 9AA, press Enter.
- Enter in the second row the postal code A99 9AA, press Enter.
- Ok.
- Tab Transform > Format > UPPERCASE.
- Done!
Regards FrankAT
Hi Frank,
Thank you for your example it was helpful. When I did this to my dataset the rule it created only created an if>then clause for all the postcodes containing errors.
This means I have to manually check when I append data. Is this because I had too few erroneous examples to work from? Would it be better to remove all spaces in the correct postcodes and then complete?If not do you know how I could create a more substantial rule? I think for my data a rule where there's a space before the last 3 characters would fix all errors.
Screenshot added with fictional values to illustrate. 
Try a new column like
new column =left(table[Postal Code],search("9AA",table[Postal Code],1,len(table[Postal Code]))) & " "& if(search("9AA",table[Postal Code],1,-1)>0,"9AA","")
Appreciate your Kudos. In case, this is the solution you are looking for, mark it as the Solution.
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