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altesv
Frequent Visitor

How to structure lookup table hierarchy

Hi I am trying to create a lookup table within Power BI.

 

The idea is that I should be able to retrieve my data at any of the four column levels below:

 

Financial StatementCategoryFS AccountAccount #
Balance SheetAssetCash110000
Balance SheetAssetCash110020
Balance SheetLiabilityAccounts Payable220000
Balance SheetLiabilityAccounts Payable230000

 

The problem is, our database's hierarchy is structured more like this:

 

 

Column1Column2Column3Column4Column5Column6Column7
Balance SheetAssetCash110000   
Balance SheetAssetCash110020   
Balance SheetLiabilityAccounts PayableAccounts Payable Subcategory 1Accounts Payable Subcategory 2220000 
Balance SheetLiabilityAccounts PayableAccounts Payable Subcategory 1Accounts Payable Subcategory 2Accounts Payable Subcategory 3230000

 

Are there anyways to structure a lookup table in cases where the hierarchy levels of the original data don't align? Or would I have to manually go through the hierarchy and "normalize" like below?

 

Column1Column2Column3Column4Column5Column6Column7
Balance SheetAssetCashCashCashCash110000
Balance SheetAssetCashCashCashCash110020
Balance SheetLiabilityAccounts PayableAccounts Payable Subcategory 1Accounts Payable Subcategory 2Accounts Payable Subcategory 2220000
Balance SheetLiabilityAccounts PayableAccounts Payable Subcategory 1Accounts Payable Subcategory 2Accounts Payable Subcategory 3230000

 

If this is at all relevant, the data I'm working with is from Oracle HFM. I'm not using a direct query, but working with an extract file with base level data. 

4 REPLIES 4
MattAllington
Community Champion
Community Champion

You will need to create the top table. I’m sure it can be done in Power Query. Can you post some sample data?



* Matt is an 8 times Microsoft MVP (Power BI) and author of the Power BI Book Supercharge Power BI.
I will not give you bad advice, even if you unknowingly ask for it.

Could you clarify what you mean by "top table?" And by sample data, are you referring to hierarchy data or fact data?

sorry, I was referring to the 3 images in your OP.  I was referring to the top one.



* Matt is an 8 times Microsoft MVP (Power BI) and author of the Power BI Book Supercharge Power BI.
I will not give you bad advice, even if you unknowingly ask for it.

Ok that makes sense. So I would need to delete out unnecessary sub-hierarchies? Is there a way to do that other than by manually deleting out in excel? Thanks!

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