Forum Discussion
Helper IPower Query - Extract an Existing Column Name and put it in a new Custom Column
OK in that case your custom column's formula should be
= List.First(Table.ColumnNames(#"Insert Previous Step Here"))
...for whatever the previous step was. I'm going to guess it's #"Renamed Columns" or #"Changed Type" or something like that.
I'm not sure why you would want to extract the text from the column header if you already are referring to the column by its name. Wouldn't you expect your hypothetical formula Column.Name("Column A") to return "Column A"? Why not just make a column that contains the text "Column A"? Why would you need to extract the same text you're already typing in?
Helper II did this and it fills the new clumn with the content of the Column A (which I do not want) and not with the name of Column A (Which is "Column A").
I know this scenario seems stupid, but this is the format of a report that I have to transform :
I have multiple reports whose name of the first column "Column A" is the name of a Brand, so for each brand I have to do a transformation and the only place where I have the name of the Brand is in The name of the Column A, therefore I have to extract it dynamically.
- ViorelCa
Sunny Date Value New Column Windy Date Value New Column sales 5/5/2012 5,000 Sunny sales 5/5/2012 6,000 Windy cost 5/7/2012 7,000 Sunny cost 5/7/2012 9,000 Windy You must have typed
= [Column A]
That's not what I said to do.
= "Column A"
As for your scenario where you will have to extract the name of a column that you don't know the name of, I refer you to my original question. How is the query supposed to know which column to extract the name of if you can't refer to it by name?
Is it always literally the first column on the left that you want the name of?
- ViorelCa
I know its name, it's the first column and its name is "Sunny" as in the example above (for the other reports the name is different).
I just have to fill a new column with that name, but dynamically, not with ="Sunny", as each report has a different column name corresponding to each Brand.
That still doesn't answer my question. If you can't refer to it by name, how do you know which column to use? Is it literally the first column on the left? Is it always the third? Could it change positions based on which report you're in?