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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
6 years ago
Solved

distance calculation : optimized route mapquest api

Hi !
I'm using the MapQuest API that calculates the optimized route given a starting location and several served locations.
For each trip, given the different locations, I want to have the distance of the trip.

 

I saw how to calculate a distance between TWO locations with a chosen API, it works as follows :

(in power query)
1) create a function with the API

2) add a column in a table where there is a column for origins and a column for destinations, these columns are used as parameters of your function

3) expand the added column
⇒ it gives you several new columns with the distance, the duration, ... and you can select information you want
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVE3POxiRKs)

I need to do something like that but my problem is that instead of having 2 location parameters (origin and destination), I have several location parameters (start location and several served locations) and the number of locations changes according to the number of locations visited during the trip.
I don't see how I can put the locations in different columns since there is a different number of location for each trip, and originally they are stored in different rows.

TRIP_IDSTART_LOCATIONSERVED_LOCATION
1DenverWestMinster
1DenverLakewood
1DenverBoulder
2New York CityBoston
2New York CityPittsburgh
3Santa FeSalt Lake City
3Santa FeSeattle
3Santa FeSacramento

 

Here is an example of the API code to obtain information about trip 1:

https://www.mapquestapi.com/directions/v2/optimizedRoute?json={"locations":["Denver, CO","WestMinster, CO","Lakewood, CO","Boulder, CO"]}&outFormat=json&key=KEY
⇒ I can add as many locations as I want


I don't know how to adapt the process to my case, would you have any idea ? I'm really stuck here.

 

Thank you very much for your help !

 

Need Help
  • mahoneypat's avatar
    mahoneypat
    6 years ago

    Here is some additional instruction

    1. Starting with your existing query, group it on the Trip_ID and Start_Location columns, using the Group By button in the ribbon.  Call the column "Locations".  Choose All Rows as the aggregation.

    2.  Add a custom column called "ListOfLocations" with this formula -    = List.Combine({{[START_LOCATION]}, [Locations][SERVED_LOCATION]}) 

    3.  Add a custom column called "ListInQuotes" with this formula -    = Text.Combine(List.Transform([ListOfLocations], each """"&_&""""), ", ")

    4. Concatenate that new column with the rest of your web call to get your results on each row/for each Trip_ID

     

    If this works for you, please mark it as the solution.  Kudos are appreciated too.  Please let me know if not.

    Regards,

    Pat

12 Replies

  • mahoneypat's avatar
    mahoneypat
    Microsoft Employee
    6 years ago

    Your data doesn't have a State code column.  Assuming you can add that and concatenate it with your city, here is an example of how you can then make the text string you need for your API call.  This will make a text string of your starting city, and all the other cities on the trip, each surrounded in double quotes.  To see how it works, just create a blank query, go to Advanced Editor, and replace the text there with the M code below.

     

    let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WMlTSUXJJzStLLQIywlOLS3wz84pLgLxYHTRJn8Ts1PL8/BRMGaf80pwUqBYjIN8vtVwhMr8oW8E5s6QSLF9ckp+HUzogs6SkOKm0KD0DrMQYKBScmFeSqOCWCmbmlCiA7IYox6YiNbGkJCcVu+bkosTc1LySfKXYWAA=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type nullable text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [TRIP_ID = _t, START_LOCATION = _t, SERVED_LOCATION = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"TRIP_ID", Int64.Type}, {"START_LOCATION", type text}, {"SERVED_LOCATION", type text}}),
    #"Grouped Rows" = Table.Group(#"Changed Type", {"TRIP_ID", "START_LOCATION"}, {{"Locations", each _, type table [TRIP_ID=number, START_LOCATION=text, SERVED_LOCATION=text]}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Grouped Rows", "ListOfLocations", each List.Combine({{[START_LOCATION]}, [Locations][SERVED_LOCATION]})),
    #"Added Custom1" = Table.AddColumn(#"Added Custom", "ListInQuotes", each Text.Combine(List.Transform([ListOfLocations], each """"&_&""""), ", "))
in
    #"Added Custom1"

     

    If this works for you, please mark it as the solution.  Kudos are appreciated too.  Please let me know if not.

    Regards,

    Pat

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      6 years ago

      Hi mahoneypat !

      Thank you very much for your answer.
      It works perfectly well displaying the data of the table I put in my first message, but I created this table with fake data just to show the structure of the real table. In fact my real table is far bigger and looks like this :

      I'm sorry I misled you. Is it still possible to make it work and access the data of my real table ?
      Thank you very much !

      Marion

      • mahoneypat's avatar
        mahoneypat
        Microsoft Employee
        6 years ago

        The image is too blurry to use OCR to pull out the data to test it out.  Can you share data copy/pasted from Excel, so I can put it into a query?  In any case, from what I can see, it looks very similar to your example data (and already includes the State?).  Did you try the query approach I suggested with your actual data?

         

        FYI that I may not respond again until Monday.

         

        Regards,

        Pat