Create a Custom Column That Categorizes Data from Another Column

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have a column of data with about 200 distinct values over thousands of rows. I'd like to create a column that assigns one of about 20 different categories to the values. The only way I've found to do this is to create a conditional column that has a new rule for each of the 200 distinct values. This is very inefficient. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks for your help!

[v-danhe-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

Could you please offer a sample data and post your desired result if possible?

Regards,

Daniel He

[LivioLanzo]

@Anonymous

Could you show a visual example?

[Anonymous]

For example, if I had a table like this, with the first two columns, but I wanted to create the third column, categorizing the values in the first into about 20 different categories. But imagine that the first column has about 200+ distinct values over thousands of rows.

Unfortunately this can't just be offloaded onto someone else as a data management issue.

[v-danhe-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

Based on my test, you could refer to below steps:

Sample data:

Create a distinct table:

Distinct table = DISTINCT('Table1'[Item])

Create a calculate column in this table:

Type = IF('Distinct table'[Item]="Apples"||'Distinct table'[Item]="Oranges"||'Distinct table'[Item]="Grapes","Fruit",
        IF('Distinct table'[Item]="Beef"||'Distinct table'[Item]="Chicken","Meat",
        IF('Distinct table'[Item]="Potatoes","Vegetable","Nuts")))

Create relationships between the two tables:

Create a calculated column in your row table:

Column = RELATED('Distinct table'[Type])

Result:

You could also download the pbix file to have a view.

Regards,
Daniel He