Forum Discussion

niark's avatar
niark
Frequent Visitor
9 years ago
Solved

Combine columns if not null or empty

Hi there,   I have some difficulties to combine text columns  with the result I want. If someone could help me to point me to the right direction :)   So I have this table : Col1         Col2   ...
  • niark's avatar
    niark
    9 years ago

    Good catch Marcel but I have other columns :)

     

    Thanks for your help, you pointed me to the right way !

     

    here the solution :

    = Table.AddColumn(#"Reordered Columns", "Personnalisé", each Text.Combine(List.Select(Record.FieldValues(Record.FromList({[Col1],[Col2],[Col3]}, type [Col1 = text,Col2 = text,Col3 = text])), each _<> "" and _ <> null)," & "))

     

    Thanks again

  • MarcelBeug's avatar
    MarcelBeug
    9 years ago

    Pleased you solved your own issue.

     

    I'd rather had shortened the code a bit:

     

    = Text.Combine(List.Select({[Col1],[Col2],[Col3],[Col4]}, each _<> "" and _ <> null)," & ")
Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
8 years ago

I have run yor M code and it works, but when I analyzed the code I realized you took advantange that every cell with data in my table has lenght just one (it just for a brief example) and you split column by position. In this case position "1" always works.

 

Imagine that in the cells of a certain row were just a word like "Luke",  now the split position  would be the length of the word "Luke". In the other rows could be another different length...

 

I suppose that an algorithm following your idea would be: calculate the maximum of the lenghts of each items on each row, maybe you have to use a dummy column with a value to concatenate further....  or maybe just a different approach to solve the problem!

Ashish_Mathur's avatar
Ashish_Mathur
Super User
8 years ago

Hi,

 

There should be a solution to that as well.  Please take a practical example and show the expected result.

  • Ashish_Mathur's avatar
    Ashish_Mathur
    Super User
    8 years ago

    Hi,

     

    Try this M code

     

    let
        Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="Data"]}[Content],
        #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Name1", type text}, {"Name2", type text}, {"Name3", type text}, {"Name4", type text}}),
        #"Inserted Merged Column" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "Merged", each Text.Combine({[Name1], [Name2], [Name3], [Name4]}, ";"), type text),
        #"Trimmed Text" = Table.TransformColumns(#"Inserted Merged Column",{{"Merged", Text.Trim}}),
        #"Split Column by Delimiter" = Table.SplitColumn(#"Trimmed Text", "Merged", Splitter.SplitTextByEachDelimiter({";"}, QuoteStyle.Csv, false), {"Merged.1", "Merged.2"}),
        #"Changed Type1" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Split Column by Delimiter",{{"Merged.1", type text}, {"Merged.2", type text}}),
        #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type1",{"Merged.2"}),
        #"Renamed Columns" = Table.RenameColumns(#"Removed Columns",{{"Merged.1", "Result"}})
    in
        #"Renamed Columns"

     

    Hope this helps.

     

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    8 years ago

    Here you have. It is the same than the previous one but just using words of different lenght in the rows. Before I only used characters of lenght 1...

     

     

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    8 years ago

    Of course it helps! It works! I shows me the power of the delimeters! Thank you very much!

  • Ashish_Mathur's avatar
    Ashish_Mathur
    Super User
    8 years ago

    Hi,

     

    You are welcome.  Please mark my reply as Answer.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    8 years ago

    I cannot see where to mark your reply as an answer..  In the place  where there are 3 points in a row there is not such option in the scroll down menu... maybe  it's only allowed just one "solved" per post (thread)