Forum Discussion
anileshknpowerb
6 years agoHelper III
Reference vs Duplicate vs Calculated Table
Hello Experts, I have a table SalesFact and I need to join 2 Dates, i,e, ShipDate and OrderDate. What is the better approach to handle this? And why is the approach is better? 1. Duplicate t...
v-yingjl
6 years agoCommunity Support
Hi anileshknpowerb ,
- Duplicate a table means copy the same previous table but if you have some new actions about the previous fact table, it will not be affected, it has benn an independent table.
- Reference means the table will be affected by the previous fact table. When a query references a second query, it's as though the steps in the second query are combined with, and run before, the steps in the first query. You can refer this document: Referencing Power Query queries .
- Calculated tables let you add new tables based on data you've already loaded into the model. Instead of querying and loading values into your new table's columns from a data source, you create a Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) formula to define the table's values. Please refer this document: Create calculated tables in Power BI Desktop
In conclusion, Duplicate is generally used when you would like to create a similar query and you do not want to type the same code. Reference in Query means you would like to use that Query results in some other queries where your original query remains as a base Query and it can be used in other queries for the further processing.
In addition, this viedo and article explain the difference between Duplicate and Reference in details that you can refer:
- Difference between duplicate and reference a query in Power Query
- Reference vs Duplicate in Power BI
Best Regards,
Yingjie Li
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