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

Vote for your favorite vizzies from the Power BI Dataviz World Championship submissions. Vote now!

Reply
bcolgan4
Regular Visitor

Need help splitting column

Hey!

 

I am having trouble breaking this CSV file out into distinct columns. The file is a csv directory consisting of lines indicating a ProductID, followed by a colon, and then customer ids and rating dates, one per line for that ProductID. There are no empty lines in the file. For example:

 

Column1, Column2:

 

ProductID1:

CustomerID11, Date11
CustomerID12,Date12
...
ProductID2:
CustomerID21,Date21
CustomerID22,Date22

 

 

bcolgan4_0-1670541258265.png

bcolgan4_1-1670541328933.png

 

How do I break out a single column for each item? I've tried to used Split Column and delimiters but can't seem to get that to work. 

 

Column1, Column2, Column3

Product ID1, CustomerID11, Date11

ProductID1, CustomerID12, Date 12

ProductID1, CustomerIDI3, Date13

......

Product ID2, CustomerID21, Date21

ProductID2, CustomerID22, Date 22

.......

ProductID3, CustomerID31, Date31

 

I appreciate the help!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
HotChilli
Community Champion
Community Champion

In power query, add a column using 'if then else'

The logic is : if column2 is empty or null or whatever then column1 else null

 

Then do a 'fill Down' on the new column.

Then filter out the null/empty rows from Column2

---

Alternatively, search the text in Column1 to see if contains ':' to make a slightly different 'if  then else'

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2
HotChilli
Community Champion
Community Champion

In power query, add a column using 'if then else'

The logic is : if column2 is empty or null or whatever then column1 else null

 

Then do a 'fill Down' on the new column.

Then filter out the null/empty rows from Column2

---

Alternatively, search the text in Column1 to see if contains ':' to make a slightly different 'if  then else'

vicky_
Super User
Super User

You will need to go into Power Query and go to Transform > Pivot Column on the Items column. See this page for a better explanation of how pivoting works: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/pivot-columns-power-query-abc9c8da-3be9-44c4-886e-0be331a...

Helpful resources

Announcements
Power BI DataViz World Championships

Power BI Dataviz World Championships

Vote for your favorite vizzies from the Power BI World Championship submissions!

Sticker Challenge 2026 Carousel

Join our Community Sticker Challenge 2026

If you love stickers, then you will definitely want to check out our Community Sticker Challenge!

January Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - January 2026

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

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.