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

To celebrate FabCon Vienna, we are offering 50% off select exams. Ends October 3rd. Request your discount now.

Reply
chitti5
Helper I
Helper I

Not able to change Many to Many relation to One to Many relation

Hi All,

 

I have two tables, each with over 40 columns. I want to connect them using a unique value which is alphanumeric that contains numbers,alphabets and special characters. However, when I tried, I ended up with a many-to-many relationship due to duplicate values in the columns. I can't append the tables because of their size.

 

I attempted to add a bridge Dim table (deleted all duplicate values from the Dim Table column) to create a one-to-many relationship with each table, but I'm still unable to achieve the desired relationships. Could the issue be that the unique value column contains commas and slashes?

 

I tried removing commas and slashes from the unique value column and even separated the columns containing these characters, but it didn’t solve the problem. The data types of both columns from both tables are also same i.e. "text". I’m still unable to establish the desired relationships between the tables. Can you help me figure out what’s going wrong?

 

Screenshots below:

IMG_50200 (1).png

IMG_50211 (1).png

IMG_5022.JPG

2 REPLIES 2
rohit1991
Super User
Super User

Hi @chitti5

 

This usually happens when your supposed unique column has hidden issues like extra spaces, case mismatches, or special characters.

 

Try cleaning it with TRIM, CLEAN, and UPPER/LOWER in Power Query. Also double-check for blanks or duplicate values using DISTINCTCOUNT in DAX. Even one blank or mismatch will block the relationship.

 


Did it work? ✔ Give a Kudo • Mark as Solution – help others too!
Greg_Deckler
Community Champion
Community Champion

@chitti5 So, the most common causes of this:

  1. As far as the semantic model is concerned, "a1" and "A1" are identical
  2. Having even a single blank value in each table

 



Follow on LinkedIn
@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
DAX For Humans

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...

Helpful resources

Announcements
September Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - September 2025

Check out the September 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

August 2025 community update carousel

Fabric Community Update - August 2025

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric community.

Top Solution Authors
Top Kudoed Authors