Forum Discussion
How to refresh a report when excel is used as source?
Hi Anonymous
For change header types – well, if you go to query editor, you will see the column names are hardcoded in the formula bar. Hence, when you change the column header names, power Bi will throw an expression error, as it is not able to find the column present in the formula bar.
To fix this issue, in query editor window, delete changed type under applied steps. Now when you change column header names, the new name will be reflected in power Bi as well. Same behaviour applies for deleted columns.
Let me know if this helps or if you found a different solution.
Regards,
Sarita
Hi,
Thanks for your response.
I tried to keep an excel file in Onedrive and tried to connect through POWER BI destop. Initially everything worked smoothly without any trouble (although it took longer to connect), however, when I tried to make changes (I deleted few columns of table) to file in Onedrive and refreshed the data from POWER BI, I got an error stating that "Expression Error" stating that a particular column was not found by Power BI.
Is this expected? The same is found even when header name is changed.
I am having a data in an excel and I was able to successfully create a dashboard using that data, but this information is subject to frequent changes, so I am looking for ways to refresh that data (column headers, addition/deletion/reorder of columns) in Power BI without any problem. Currently, I am recreating the entire report/dashboard if I make even a small change to the data model.
Please guide me if I am missing any key points.
Helper IHi Anonymous
For change header types – well, if you go to query editor, you will see the column names are hardcoded in the formula bar. Hence, when you change the column header names, power Bi will throw an expression error, as it is not able to find the column present in the formula bar.
To fix this issue, in query editor window, delete changed type under applied steps. Now when you change column header names, the new name will be reflected in power Bi as well. Same behaviour applies for deleted columns.
Let me know if this helps or if you found a different solution.
Regards,
Sarita
Hi Sarita,
Thanks for your suggestion!!
After I removed the "Changed Type" under "Applied Steps" all my changes (addition/deletion/modification of column) is reflecting when I refresh the data.
Regards,
PKR
Thanks for this. Mysteriously it does happen that sometimes my query is refreshed correctly, sometimes not. I tried to use that step, looks like its working.
Just a question: if I remove Changed Type and I close / reopen the Query Editor, Changed Type is still in the applied steps. Is that normal? i clicked Apply & Close.
