Forum Discussion
Column content = Table Name or Query Name
- 9 years ago
Remark: according to your example, you are appending tables, not merging tables.
There is no function to get the name of your table.
But there is still a way to achieve what you want. It requires a deep dive into the realms of Power Query though.
Suppose your table names are Year2015, Year2016 etcetera.
Create a table "Years". e.g. for the years 2015-2030 (you may have additional years in this table for which you have no data yet):
Table.FromList({2015..2030}, each {_}, type table[Year = Int64.Type])(this is the entire query code, so no let..in structure).
Now create the following query that creates the required result:
let Source = Years, AddedTables = Table.AddColumn(Source, "Data", each Expression.Evaluate("Year"&Text.From([Year]), #sections[Section1])), RemovedErrors = Table.RemoveRowsWithErrors(AddedTables, {"Data"}), ReorderedColumns = Table.ReorderColumns(RemovedErrors,{"Data", "Year"}), AddedColumnNames = Table.AddColumn(ReorderedColumns, "ColumnNames", each Table.ColumnNames([Data])), ColumnNames = List.Distinct(List.Combine(AddedColumnNames[ColumnNames])), ExpandedData = Table.ExpandTableColumn(AddedColumnNames, "Data", ColumnNames), RemovedColumnNames = Table.RemoveColumns(ExpandedData,{"ColumnNames"}) in RemovedColumnNamesThis code uses Expression.Evaluate to turn table names into tables; this function requires an environment record, otherwise the tables are unknown objects when the expression is evaluated. The keyword #sections is used to get the objects from the current environment (Excel or pbix file), which returns a record with 1 field "Section1", which in turn is a record with the objects from the current environment, including your tables.
The code is dynamic with regard to changing table structures over the years, i.e. the tables may have different columns.
Remark: according to your example, you are appending tables, not merging tables.
There is no function to get the name of your table.
But there is still a way to achieve what you want. It requires a deep dive into the realms of Power Query though.
Suppose your table names are Year2015, Year2016 etcetera.
Create a table "Years". e.g. for the years 2015-2030 (you may have additional years in this table for which you have no data yet):
Table.FromList({2015..2030}, each {_}, type table[Year = Int64.Type])(this is the entire query code, so no let..in structure).
Now create the following query that creates the required result:
let
Source = Years,
AddedTables = Table.AddColumn(Source, "Data", each Expression.Evaluate("Year"&Text.From([Year]), #sections[Section1])),
RemovedErrors = Table.RemoveRowsWithErrors(AddedTables, {"Data"}),
ReorderedColumns = Table.ReorderColumns(RemovedErrors,{"Data", "Year"}),
AddedColumnNames = Table.AddColumn(ReorderedColumns, "ColumnNames", each Table.ColumnNames([Data])),
ColumnNames = List.Distinct(List.Combine(AddedColumnNames[ColumnNames])),
ExpandedData = Table.ExpandTableColumn(AddedColumnNames, "Data", ColumnNames),
RemovedColumnNames = Table.RemoveColumns(ExpandedData,{"ColumnNames"})
in
RemovedColumnNamesThis code uses Expression.Evaluate to turn table names into tables; this function requires an environment record, otherwise the tables are unknown objects when the expression is evaluated. The keyword #sections is used to get the objects from the current environment (Excel or pbix file), which returns a record with 1 field "Section1", which in turn is a record with the objects from the current environment, including your tables.
The code is dynamic with regard to changing table structures over the years, i.e. the tables may have different columns.
hmmmm... Thank you so much for the help, but it seems like something above my pay check in Power Query, at the moment...
I will for sure get back to this post, that I really thank you, but for now, I will simply add manually a personalized column to each table. I will not have the important and valuable dynamic column, but I have to go LEAN at this moment.
Sorry about the "merging" mistake, but I am using Excel in my native language (I really have to change it) and wrongly made the translation.