topic Issues with date columns in Power Query

Issues with date columns

cool_333 — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:31:01 GMT

Hi All,

I'm trying to solve this issue if anyone can help. I've saved spreadsheets on the SharePoint folder and it has the Activity ID column and date columns please see the below snippet. The issue is the end date of the most recent spread in this case 29th can be less than the previous sheet's end date, is there a way it can pick up all the dates as per the most recent spreadsheet ignoring the data of the previous sheet? In power query I've done a transformation where it should pick up the data from the most recent file however if the end date of the recent spreadsheet is less than the previous then it throws an error.

spread dated 28th - data until 20th Aug 2023

spread dated 29th has data until 21st July 2023.

Many Thanks

Re: Issues with date columns

v-jingzhang — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 03:42:53 GMT

Hi cool_333

Are you connecting to the SharePoint folder and combining all files data into a single query? I guess that you have already selected the most recent file as the Sample file and transformed it in "Transform Sample File" query right? If so, you need to add a custom step in the "Transform Sample File" query to select the columns.

= Table.SelectColumns(#"previous step", Table.ColumnNames(#"previous step"))

I recommend that you promote the date value row as column header, and remove the auto-generated "Changed Type" step. The "Changed Type" step changes column types based on column names, this will sometimes cause an error when combining multiple queries. Then you can go to the combined single query. If it has an error, remove its auto-generated "Changed Type" step too. You will have the expected combined result then. You can change column types later manually.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Jing
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Re: Issues with date columns

cool_333 — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 11:35:55 GMT

Superrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Thank you so much it worked :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))