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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
8 years ago
Solved

How to extract numbers before -

I have a column which says the zip codes of the locations out of which few of them have zip-xxxx for the specific block location. When I tried loading it directly it gave me an error. So, when I tried to change the format of the column to text and extract using extract by delimiter "-", its still giving me errors. It's giving me an error message as "[DataFormat.Error] We couldn't convert to Number".

Need Help
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago

    Anonymous,

    I could not replicate your issue. It is working fine for me. See the code below:

    let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("JcrBDYAwDEPRXXKmku3Uhc4Sdf81QOH2vvSrIkkpzlUx7eVWymsPTmWnCGAA/D/DQOvGsz+dFw==", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"Zip Code" = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Zip Code", type text}}),
    #"Inserted Text Before Delimiter" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "Text Before Delimiter", each Text.BeforeDelimiter([Zip Code], "-"), type text)
in
    #"Inserted Text Before Delimiter"

5 Replies

  • Thejeswar's avatar
    Thejeswar
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    8 years ago

    Anonymous,

    Did you try converting the column to text in Power Query (Inside Edit Query) and not in the visual area?

     

    If not try doing it there and then you can also get the extract by delimiter there.

     

    That should fix the issue

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      8 years ago

      Thejeswar

      I was doing the editing in the power query editor itself. The extract by delimiter is working only with text columns

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    8 years ago

    Anonymous,

    I could not replicate your issue. It is working fine for me. See the code below:

    let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("JcrBDYAwDEPRXXKmku3Uhc4Sdf81QOH2vvSrIkkpzlUx7eVWymsPTmWnCGAA/D/DQOvGsz+dFw==", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"Zip Code" = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Zip Code", type text}}),
    #"Inserted Text Before Delimiter" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "Text Before Delimiter", each Text.BeforeDelimiter([Zip Code], "-"), type text)
in
    #"Inserted Text Before Delimiter"
    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      8 years ago

      Thanks Anonymous All the time I was transforming the  existing column. Your solution of Adding a new column worked

  • BKirsch12's avatar
    BKirsch12
    Icon for Resolver II rankResolver II
    8 years ago

    Not sure the error you ran into, I tried this with some dummy data I made. Have you tried using the split column feature? Try that with using - as a delimiter. Alternatively you can use the extract feature and take the first 5 characters. Let me know if that helps.