Forum Discussion
How can I use a data source with variable column names and position?
Hi Rob,
If I'm understanding your suggestion correctly, this means that we should have a different query for each template used? That will only work if we only had 2 or just a couple of templates. However, this case would preferably want to be scalable as we could be working with different survey templates for specific clients, with versions for specific uses or revisions to existing templates.
Also, the header names is unlikely to be the same with each template, again due to revisions/new template versions.
Hi olimilo ,
You can put these data in one excel file and connect to that excel file with Power BI Desktop. When there is any change for original data, please update it in excel file. You can get the latest data after click "Refresh All" link in Power Query Editor. You may get the error "The column xx of table wasn't found" when the column renamed or add new column in original data source. Please refer the content in the following links to resolve it.
POWER BI AND LOCAL EXCEL DATA REFRESH
10 Common Mistakes You Do In #PowerBI #PowerQuery – And How To Avoid Pitfalls
Best Regards
Hi Rena,
What we ended up doing was turning the data sheets into data tables in Excel and loading them as such in PBI. Afterwards, we unpivoted the data, merged it with a master question-ID-field name table to get merge the questions into common data points (where applicable) and finally pivoted it back.
It's not the most graceful solution but if anyone has a better solution than this, we're all ears.
Hi olimilo ,
Could you please provide some screenshot about original data sheets and your expected result(include master question-id and questions)? Thank you.
Best Regards