Copying and Pasting Queries in and from Dataflow Gen2 not working as expected

[edchuy]

I tried copying a query from within Dataflow Gen2 and from Power Query in Power Query desktop two ways and neither worked.

When I select paste from the contextual menu I got this message:

 When I tried pasting using Ctrl-V, I got this:

Finally, I tried to paste a query from Dataflow Gen2 into Power Query in Power BI and nothing happened.

[edchuy]

OK. I figured it out. Anyway, copy and pasting doesn't work the same as it does in Power Query in both Power BI Desktop and Excel. Also, if you copy in Dataflow Gen2 more than once the query code is added to the one that you previously copied. It definitely took me a while to figure it out and wasn't consistent with my previous experience.

[miguel]

I'm updating the documentation that we have around this capability, but what Peter has mentioned is correct. You can check the overall capability from the article below:

Share a query - Power Query | Microsoft Learn

If you can share some sample code and repro steps that could shed some light on the discrepancies that you've found, that will help us tremendously to address them.

[edchuy]

The article you shared below is exactly how I am used to copying queries within Power BI Desktop and even CTRL-v works as I would expect. In the case of copying the whole query in Dataflow Gen2, it definitely doesn't work the same way as shown in both of my screenshots.

[miguel]

You mention that in the case of copying the whole query in Dataflow Gen2, it doesn't work the same way. Could you tell us more about how you're copying them? The screenshots on this thread only show the dialogs that you get when you try to paste them and not copy the queries.

[edchuy]

Yes. So when I try to either copy the query either via the "Copy" when right-clicking or using Ctrl-C, when trying to paste via the "Paste" when right-clicking I get the message shown in the first image. If I paste using Ctrl-V I get the message shown in the second image.

[miguel · Accepted solution]

Yes. This is a known difference that we're internally tracking, but it won't limit you in terms of being able to paste it, just with the need to use the Ctrl + V approach.

Please do help us prioritize this change by posting this as a new item in the ideas Portal (https://aka.ms/FabricIdeas)

[pqian_MSFT]

Copy pasting query should work seamlessly across all Power Query hosts - PBI Desktop, Excel, PBI Dataflow Gen1, Fabric Dataflow Gen2, Power Platform Dataflows, etc. There maybe slight variances in the way pasting is handled due to execution environment constraints (for example, browser doesn't allow pasting without a CTRL+V keypress).

I was not able to repro the "if you copy in Dataflow Gen2 more than once the query code is added to the one that you previously copied." Do you mean pasting the same query into the editor repeatedly? If that's what you mean that is consistently the case in the past across all power query hosts. We will rename the queries as well to avoid conflicts. 

[edchuy]

OK. On the latter point, that problem seems to happen only if you unsuccessful try to paste in a browser using CTRL-v to get the second error I showed and then proceed to copy a query in Dataflow Gen2.

[pqian_MSFT]

Just tried and it works fine for me. What happens when you copy the query from PBI and then paste into notepad? You should at least get the query scripts back. Can you verify that? Can you share a screenshot of the repro?