Semantic Model load error Name contains a duplicate value

[DebbieE]

Power Query editor all the data is rfreshing fine.

I load into Power BI and get an error

Column Name in Table Dim Project contains a duplicate value of 'Name 1'

and this is not allowed for columns on the 1 side of a many to one relationship. Or for columns that are used as the primary key of a table.

Project Key   project ID Name             Status

1                   22             Name 1          good

56                 55             Name 1           poor

My issue is. That the Name doesnt need to be unique. Its the Project ID that makes it unique

In the star schema, I join fact to dim by Project Key to Project Key which is unique

1 (in the dim.  to many in the fact. And again, the Key is unique in Dim. I don't ue Name)

In Power Query editor I never use Project Name to merge tables together.

Im at a bit of a loss. I don't know how to get past this error.  And I don't think it should be happening. Can anyone give me any advice on what to do next?

[MFelix · Accepted solution]

Hi @DebbieE ,

Double check if the relationship was done by the correct column, sometimes when dragging and dropping I select the incorrect column by mistake.

A waork around is to remove the relationship, make the Power Query changes and then redo the relationship.

[AlexisOlson · Accepted solution]

From the error, it sounds like you're using Name as a relationship column. Double-check that there aren't any relationships on Name.

If that's not the case, I suppose it's still possible that the Name column got designated as a key column at some point. You can check and set that property with Tabular Editor but I'm not sure that's possible directly in Power BI Desktop.

Properties panel in TE3:

[MFelix · Accepted solution]

Hi @DebbieE ,

Double check if the relationship was done by the correct column, sometimes when dragging and dropping I select the incorrect column by mistake.

A waork around is to remove the relationship, make the Power Query changes and then redo the relationship.

[DebbieE]

Ill try this one first. 

The relationship is definitely Dim Project Prokect Key (1)  to Project Key  fact (M) so no issues there but I have removed the relationship to try again.

And its still erroring on the issue

then i sarted to think. I have a lot of transformation and landing tables in there (Because I havent managed to use a staging area for this project, Never good I know.

So could it be a staging table linking.....And yep. Power BI had assigned a relationship to the landing table on name that i hadnt seen.

And that resolved it. I hadnt thought about all these hidden tables I have had to have in the model.

Thanks you

[AlexisOlson]

Note that you don't need to load staging tables to your model. Go to the query editor and uncheck Enable load for any staging tables you don't want to be a table in your semantic model.

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Disable-table-loading-in-Power-BI/td-p/3261111#:~:....

[DebbieE]

I have never really understood this. I start with my landing tables that get refreshed. Then, I still want to refresh the staging tables because the staging tables then refresh the Dims and Facts. So dont I need to Load them so they populate dim and Fact? otherwise I wont be able to populate dim and fact with the latest refreshed data.

am I getting the logic wrong here? 

[AlexisOlson]

The staging tables that your fact and dimension tables depend upon will still be updated even if you don't load them.