Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Try your skills in the Power BI Dataviz World Championship! Round one ends June 26. Join now

Reply
Anonymous
Not applicable

M Help!

 

Hi all,

I am trying to acheive a logic in Power Query. 

 

Lets consider the below sample data. Series is the source data, and i want to convert the source data as mentioned in the second column, which is expected output.

Series column can have values , seperated by | and it can come in any order as shown here, but in the output it should be ordered as needed. 

Any help will be highly appriciated.

 

Series ExpectedOutput
A|D|B A|B|D
C|A|E|D A|C|D|E
D|B B|D
E|D|A A|D|E
D D
D|E|B|A|C A|B|C|D|E

 

Thanks

Raj

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
AlB
Community Champion
Community Champion

 

I thought this, a small variation of what we had before, would work but it doesn't. I haven't had the time to fix it:

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("PczBDQAgCAPAVQxvl0BhCuImHd4q6A/K0QhRGEaTzmHAZPWQCYXDMpy8+43LPUUBTfPFWa2ws4/vr7p61gY=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"Series " = _t, ExpectedOutput = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Series ", type text}, {"ExpectedOutput", type text}}),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type",{"ExpectedOutput"}),
    #"Trimmed Text" = Table.TransformColumns(#"Removed Columns",{{"Series ", Text.Trim, type text}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Trimmed Text", "Custom", each Text.Combine(List.Sort(Text.Split([#"Series "],"|"),  List.PositionOf({"C","E","D","B","A","K","F"}, [#"Series "])),"|")),
    #"Removed Columns1" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom",{"Series "})
in
    #"Removed Columns1"

So try this other approach instead, less elegant but effective: 

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("PczBDQAgCAPAVQxvl0BhCuImHd4q6A/K0QhRGEaTzmHAZPWQCYXDMpy8+43LPUUBTfPFWa2ws4/vr7p61gY=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"Series " = _t, ExpectedOutput = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Series ", type text}, {"ExpectedOutput", type text}}),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type",{"ExpectedOutput"}),
    #"Trimmed Text" = Table.TransformColumns(#"Removed Columns",{{"Series ", Text.Trim, type text}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Trimmed Text", "Custom", each Table.FromList(Text.Split([#"Series "],"|"))),
    #"Removed Columns1" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom",{"Series "}),
    #"Added Custom3" = Table.AddColumn(#"Removed Columns1", "Custom.2", each Table.AddColumn([Custom], "Aux", each List.PositionOf({"C","E","D","B","A","K","F"}, [Column1]))),
    #"Added Custom4" = Table.AddColumn(#"Added Custom3", "Custom.3", each Table.Sort([Custom.2], each [Aux])),
    #"Added Custom6" = Table.AddColumn(#"Added Custom4", "Custom.4", each Text.Combine([Custom.3][Column1],"|")),
    #"Removed Columns2" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom6",{"Custom", "Custom.2", "Custom.3"})
in
    #"Removed Columns2"

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
AlB
Community Champion
Community Champion

 

I thought this, a small variation of what we had before, would work but it doesn't. I haven't had the time to fix it:

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("PczBDQAgCAPAVQxvl0BhCuImHd4q6A/K0QhRGEaTzmHAZPWQCYXDMpy8+43LPUUBTfPFWa2ws4/vr7p61gY=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"Series " = _t, ExpectedOutput = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Series ", type text}, {"ExpectedOutput", type text}}),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type",{"ExpectedOutput"}),
    #"Trimmed Text" = Table.TransformColumns(#"Removed Columns",{{"Series ", Text.Trim, type text}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Trimmed Text", "Custom", each Text.Combine(List.Sort(Text.Split([#"Series "],"|"),  List.PositionOf({"C","E","D","B","A","K","F"}, [#"Series "])),"|")),
    #"Removed Columns1" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom",{"Series "})
in
    #"Removed Columns1"

So try this other approach instead, less elegant but effective: 

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("PczBDQAgCAPAVQxvl0BhCuImHd4q6A/K0QhRGEaTzmHAZPWQCYXDMpy8+43LPUUBTfPFWa2ws4/vr7p61gY=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"Series " = _t, ExpectedOutput = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Series ", type text}, {"ExpectedOutput", type text}}),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type",{"ExpectedOutput"}),
    #"Trimmed Text" = Table.TransformColumns(#"Removed Columns",{{"Series ", Text.Trim, type text}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Trimmed Text", "Custom", each Table.FromList(Text.Split([#"Series "],"|"))),
    #"Removed Columns1" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom",{"Series "}),
    #"Added Custom3" = Table.AddColumn(#"Removed Columns1", "Custom.2", each Table.AddColumn([Custom], "Aux", each List.PositionOf({"C","E","D","B","A","K","F"}, [Column1]))),
    #"Added Custom4" = Table.AddColumn(#"Added Custom3", "Custom.3", each Table.Sort([Custom.2], each [Aux])),
    #"Added Custom6" = Table.AddColumn(#"Added Custom4", "Custom.4", each Text.Combine([Custom.3][Column1],"|")),
    #"Removed Columns2" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom6",{"Custom", "Custom.2", "Custom.3"})
in
    #"Removed Columns2"
AlB
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hi @Anonymous 

Try this based on your sample data. The important part is the one highlighted in red:

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("PczBDQAgCAPAVQxvl0BhCuImHd4q6A/K0QhRGEaTzmHAZPWQCYXDMpy8+43LPUUBTfPFWa2ws4/vr7p61gY=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"Series " = _t, ExpectedOutput = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Series ", type text}, {"ExpectedOutput", type text}}),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Changed Type",{"ExpectedOutput"}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Removed Columns", "Custom", each Text.Combine(List.Sort(Text.Split([#"Series "],"|"),Order.Ascending),"|")),
    #"Removed Columns1" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom",{"Series "})
in
    #"Removed Columns1"

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

@AlB - Thanks for the excellent code. This perfectly works.can i add one more qn?  In the real case, the order is not simple ascending, can we sort this based on a custom list or order? For Ex: Instead of A|B|C|D|E|F|K, the order should be C|E|D|B|A|K|F, how to do that?

 

Many thanks for your help.

 

Thanks
Raj

Helpful resources

Announcements
Fabric Data Days is here Carousel

Fabric Data Days 2026

Don't miss out on Data Days, June 15 through August 7. Learn Fabric, Power BI, SQL, AI and more.

May Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - May 2026

Check out the May 2026 Power BI update to learn about new features.

Power BI DataViz World Championships carousel

Power BI DataViz World Championships - June 2026

A new Power BI DataViz World Championship is coming this June! Don't miss out on submitting your entry.