Forum Discussion

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
4 years ago

PowerBI data import - blanks being autopopulated

In an SQL database, a column (EXTENSION) has blanks, however, when the data is imported into PowerBI, some blanks get filled with the data of the previous cell.

SQL 

PowerBI 

 

However, in the row view, I can see the field (EXTENSION) is empty

 

How can I avoid PowerBI to autofill the values when the field is blank?

Need Help

4 Replies

  • ImkeF's avatar
    ImkeF
    Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion
    4 years ago

    Hi Anonymous ,
    I have never seen anything like that happening before.
    Please check the M-code that has been generated automatically in the editor to see if any steps have been created there that do this fill-down. Then delete them.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      4 years ago

      Nothing unusual was added, however, I just added a new column based on the one showing the errors. I check for blanks and make them spaces in a new column. Somehow, the new column does show the correct format.

          TABPHONE_Table1 = Table.AddColumn(TABPHONE_Table,"EXT",
        each if [EXTENSION] = "" then " " else [EXTENSION]),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(TABPHONE_Table1,{"EXTENSION"})

      I still would like to know where the error is coming from, as there is the potential on having more tables with similar issues.

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        4 years ago

        Just a thought, Blanks and nulls are not the same even though they may look the same in SQL in your query window, "depending". They are handled completely differently in SQL and PBI. Not sure if this is your issue but it's worth looking into.