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h0ttamale's avatar
h0ttamale
Frequent Visitor
9 years ago
Solved

How do I duplicate rows based on cell contents (cell contains semi-colon seperated data)?

How do I duplicate rows based on the content of Column B. I'd like a separate row for each "Person" in the cell?

This is my starting table (I can't extract the data in any other way):

 



This is my goal:

 

 

I'm new to BI but familiar with databases. Does it make more sense to "text to columns" then do a join?

 

Please help and thank you!

  • tringuyenminh92's avatar
    tringuyenminh92
    9 years ago

    HI h0ttamale,

     

    This could be done by Query Editor (M Language) as below steps:

    • Click Edit Queries 
    • In Query Editor, Choose Add Column tab -> Choose Custom Column
    • Name for new column: NewContact with formula: Text.Split([Contact],";")
    • In the top right of NewContact column, choose Expand to new rows

     

    If this works for you please accept it as solution and also like to give KUDOS.

    Best regards
    Tri Nguyen

5 Replies

  • tringuyenminh92's avatar
    tringuyenminh92
    Icon for Memorable Member rankMemorable Member
    9 years ago

    HI h0ttamale,

     

    This could be done by Query Editor (M Language) as below steps:

    • Click Edit Queries 
    • In Query Editor, Choose Add Column tab -> Choose Custom Column
    • Name for new column: NewContact with formula: Text.Split([Contact],";")
    • In the top right of NewContact column, choose Expand to new rows

     

    If this works for you please accept it as solution and also like to give KUDOS.

    Best regards
    Tri Nguyen

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      3 years ago

      what if your reference cell contains numeric value, and that numeric value shoud be the times it needs to be replicated? Lets say, my cell value for the row is 5, then I want to have 5 copies of that rows. Thanks!

       

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        2 years ago

        then you should add a Custom Column with a formula:

        List.Repeat({[your reference cell]},[your reference cell])
        and then in the top right of your new Custom Column choose Expand to new rows

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    3 years ago

    Hello, I have the same problem with a dataset that has multiple countries(e.g US, UK, Mexico, Canada) in a cell that is supposed to have just one country(e.g US ) in the cell under 'Country' column. I followed the steps you gave above in power query editor for but I could not find the option 'expand to new rows'.

     

    Kindly assist