Filter only the most recent data in Power Query

[nok]

Hi!
I have a folder where users upload Excel files with weekly data. All the files they upload have the same name and structure; the only thing that changes are the rows, as each file refers to a single week.

In Power Query, I want to connect only to the most recent file in this folder, based on the "Date created" date column. I want to dynamically bring only the data from the most recent file into Power BI. When the user uploads a new file for the next week, for example, the report should automatically bring only the data from the next week, as it will be the most recent data.

So, based on the print above, the only row that should appear is the second one, where the date is 03/09/2025

How can I do this?

[Shahid12523 · Accepted solution]

- Connect to the folder with your files.
- Filter to only .xlsx files.
- Sort the files by Date created descending.
- Keep the top (most recent) file.
- Use its full file path to load the Excel data dynamically.

[danextian]

Hi @nok 

• Sort the Date created column in descending order.
• Wrap the previous step in Table.Buffer to store the sorted data in memory: Table.Buffer(#"Previous Step Name")
• Remove the Name column so that when accessing the first row from the Content column, the step won’t mistakenly reference the filename (which can change).
• Go to Home > Keep Rows, and keep only the first row.
• Under the Content column, click Binary.

[MasonMA]

Hello @nok 

On Power Query UI, you can sort 'descending' by 'Date created', keep only the top 1 row. This ensures only the latest file remains.

I'm using 'Date modified' in Demo, so the M code generated from UI would be 

let
    Source = Folder.Files("C:\"),
    #"Sorted Rows" = Table.Sort(Source,{{"Date modified", Order.Descending}}),
    #"Kept First Rows" = Table.FirstN(#"Sorted Rows",1)
in
    #"Kept First Rows"