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
Skemaz
Advocate II
Advocate II

Error using {[Index]-1} to reference field in previous row

Hi

I'm trying to reference a field in the previous row using {[Index]-1} but I get the error:

"We cannot convert the value to type list".

Please see the screen-shots below that explain what I'm doing.

Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Mark.

(1) The code with the {[Index]-1}

(2) The "Index" column.

(3) The errors I get in the column.

(4) The error description.

Picture1.jpg

Picture2.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture3.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
MarcelBeug
Community Champion
Community Champion

In the first formula you are refering to the field [Margin], which refers to the value in the current row, but you want to refer to the entire table column, so [Margin] must be preceded by the previous step name.

 

Otherwise, this kind of references tend to be very inefficient, so if you have a large table, the refresh will take "forever".

 

A far better solution is to get the data from the previous row on the current row, as I explained in this topic.

Specializing in Power Query Formula Language (M)

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
MarcelBeug
Community Champion
Community Champion

In the first formula you are refering to the field [Margin], which refers to the value in the current row, but you want to refer to the entire table column, so [Margin] must be preceded by the previous step name.

 

Otherwise, this kind of references tend to be very inefficient, so if you have a large table, the refresh will take "forever".

 

A far better solution is to get the data from the previous row on the current row, as I explained in this topic.

Specializing in Power Query Formula Language (M)

Hi Marcel

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction and taking me away from going down the path of using {[Index]-1}.

I tried out that option ans as you pointed out, it results in a very long query execution time (I just killed the process after it had taken way to long already).

I actually already had the 2 indexes and had done the merge, so thinking about it I used groupings to solve my problem of summing the [Margin] column.

Many thanks for assisting and best regards, Mark.

Many thanks for your support.
What I want to do is refer to the previous row in order to create a cumulative total up to the point when I hit a null value. I was just attempting to figure out how to refer to the previous row data. I'm away from my computer at the moment and will look at your suggestion in detail when I can.
Thanks for assisting.
Regards, Mark.

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.

Join our Fabric User Panel

Join our Fabric User Panel

This is your chance to engage directly with the engineering team behind Fabric and Power BI. Share your experiences and shape the future.