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dparkinson's avatar
dparkinson
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9 years ago
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Extracting a field with multiple values to a new table.

This is related to my previous question and I'm wondering if there is a better way to do things.

 

Basically I have a database that stores data with muliple values in the same field, so for example, one record in the database will have multiple categories associated to it.  There is a lookup table, but I'm not sure how best to return the information in a usable way.

 

I'm thinking that it might be best to extract the values to a separate table, that way I can use the values for cross filtering / slicers etc.

 

Example tables:

 

 

Example Orders TableLookup Table

 

I'm wondering if I could create a table with a many-to-many relationship so it might look like this:

 

 

Example OrderCategories TableExample Relationship

 

 

My questions are:

- do you think this would be overall beneficial?

- how do I create the new OrderCategories table from the existing Orders and Lookup tables?

 

 

 

Many thanks for any assistance.

Kind regards,

D.

 

 

  • Hi dparkinson,

     

    Yes, creating the OrderCategories table seems a better solution here.

     

    And you can use the Split Column by Delimiter to Rows option in Query Editor to create the OrderCategories table.

     

    1. Duplicate Order/Things table in Query Editor.

    2. Right click on the Categories/Thing Companies column, and choose Split Column by Delimiter.

    3. Select "Comma", "Split into Rows" on the popup tab.

    4. Filter out Blank rows.

    5. Click Close&Apply.

     

    Final relationship.

     

    Here is the modifed pbix file for your reference. :smileyhappy:

     

    Regards

1 Reply

  • v-ljerr-msft's avatar
    v-ljerr-msft
    Icon for Microsoft Employee rankMicrosoft Employee

    Hi dparkinson,

     

    Yes, creating the OrderCategories table seems a better solution here.

     

    And you can use the Split Column by Delimiter to Rows option in Query Editor to create the OrderCategories table.

     

    1. Duplicate Order/Things table in Query Editor.

    2. Right click on the Categories/Thing Companies column, and choose Split Column by Delimiter.

    3. Select "Comma", "Split into Rows" on the popup tab.

    4. Filter out Blank rows.

    5. Click Close&Apply.

     

    Final relationship.

     

    Here is the modifed pbix file for your reference. :smileyhappy:

     

    Regards