Forum Discussion
SharePoint Lists - how to get Display names
When you load data from a SharePoint list, the columns are named using an "Internal" name rather than the "Display" name that exposed when interacting with SharePoint.
Is there a recipe that can be used to retrieve the display names and overwrite the internal names once imported into Power BI?
8 Replies
Seward12533Solution Sage
Best to handle in in PowerQuery when your importing the data. Its probably in an embeeded list or table that you need to expand or extract (there is a little icon on the top right of the column that looks like two upwards arrow pointing out. (see below)
If you still can't find it you will need to build and link a lookuptable - you can get a headstart by using CREATE TABLE on the Modeling menu and using List of IDs TEMP = VALUES(table[IDs]) to generate a unique list of values which you can copy and past into a new table with ENTER DATA from the Home tab and then add the mapping columns.
Yes, I know that this needs to be done in PowerQuery and I know that the display names must be available, but they are deeply nested in sub-tables that are not intuitively named - I've spent quite a bit of time looking. Try it, you'll see what I mean.
I'm asking if anyone has a recipe for retrieving them - have you figured out the path through the nested tables to find the display names?
- Seward12533Mine are just there so I’d work with the share point owner to ad them to the list. You may need to get the lookup table of ID to Display name.