Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Enhance your career with this limited time 50% discount on Fabric and Power BI exams. Ends August 31st. Request your voucher.

Reply
Anonymous
Not applicable

Converting [List] to text value

I have been searching on this for a few hours, and maybe my search terms are terrible but I can't seem to find what I am looking for  - which (I think) should be very easy.

 

I am creating a Power BI report from a SharePoint list. The list is from a Power Apps form, and several of the fields are actually other, smaller lists on the same site, used so we can dynamically update the available selections (in the form drop-down) without edting the Power Apps form.

 

All well and good, but when I import this list into Power BI the columns in question comes through with every row populated with [List] and nothing else. The list being sourced for the drop-downs acgtually has 35 columns in it, and I'd like to extract two or three of those into other, new columns.

 

I assume this would be a Power Query action, but I can't seem to find a good example to guide this newbie down the right path.

 

Thanks!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Anonymous
Not applicable

Yeah, it works, but it only brings the ID over. Guess I'll have to do a 35-item long REPLACE column to get the text...

 

UPDATE: I just looked up the IDs compared to the location codes I wanted, then put in a long SWITCH statement on a new column to populate the IDs as needed. This worked fine, so I marked your respnse as the solution.

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5
Syndicate_Admin
Administrator
Administrator

What was your solution?, I have the same problem. Thanks a lot

Greg_Deckler
Community Champion
Community Champion

@Anonymous You should have an icon in the column header of two arrows pointing in opposite directions. Click it.



Follow on LinkedIn
@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
DAX For Humans

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...

I have been searching for an hour on how to convert the List value into text and then I found this solution and it was simple. Thank you for your solution it was very easy.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Yeah, it works, but it only brings the ID over. Guess I'll have to do a 35-item long REPLACE column to get the text...

 

UPDATE: I just looked up the IDs compared to the location codes I wanted, then put in a long SWITCH statement on a new column to populate the IDs as needed. This worked fine, so I marked your respnse as the solution.

Anonymous
Not applicable

You're right! I am a part- part-time user, so keep forgetting these things in the years between projects.

 

However, now I have a different issue: it's coming through as numbers, when I know for a fact the actual list entries are three-letter acronyms. I checked and the formatting is Text, so do I need to set up a 35-long replacement column?

Helpful resources

Announcements
July 2025 community update carousel

Fabric Community Update - July 2025

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric community.

July PBI25 Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - July 2025

Check out the July 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.