Forum Discussion
Splitting multi-element data structure list into separate rows
Hi all
I have a table that contains a number of control records. Each control record can dictate the behaviour of an aspect of our system and may be a string, flag, file name or a list of data. My question relates to records defining lists of data.
The data lists comprise a prefix ("List:") followed by a list of indexes and descriptions. For example;
List:"1","Description 1", "1","Description 1", "2","Description 2", "3","Description 3", etc
I want to access those descriptions based on the index used by the customer record - each customer is attached to an index on the customer record.
How can I split the list into a table of index, description? I've tried using Split Column by delimiter which kind of works but gives a row in the output for each element;
1
Description 1
2
Description 2
3
Description 3
etc
I just want
1 Description 1
2 Description 2
3 Description 3
etc
I can then join the customer index to the description index.
TIA
Hi garycarters
1. Create new Source >> Blank Query
2. Go to Advanced Editor and paste the Function Code Provided.
3. In your table, go to Add Column ribbon and find Invoke Custom Function
4. In the Function Query section select the function you have created (most probably Query1 if you have not change the name ).
5. In Your Column Section change ABC to Column Name and Select ListData from the drop down list next press OK to confirm.
6. Now you should have an extra column in your table that can be expanded by:
- Clicking inside the cell on "Table"
- If you want to expand on the original table, click on the double arrow on the column header and select the columns you want to add
Best Regards,
Mariusz
Please feel free to connect with me.
11 Replies
Hi garycarters
You can use the below M syntax
let Source = {"1","Description 1", "1","Description 1", "2","Description 2", "3","Description 3"}, Split = List.Split( Source, 2 ), Output = #table( type table [ ID = Int64.Type, Description = text ], Split ) in OutputRegards,
Mariusz
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.Hi Mariusz
Thanks for that, it looks promising.
I've entered the code as below. However,
= let Source = Sql.Database("calsql", "mcsrm_live"), dbo_spec_checklist_items = Source{[Schema="dbo",Item="spec_checklist_items"]}[Data], #"Filtered Rows" = Table.SelectRows(dbo_spec_checklist_items, each ([id] = 57)), #"Extracted Text Range" = Table.TransformColumns(#"Filtered Rows", {{"ListData", each Text.Middle(_, 5, 200000), type text}}), Split = List.Split( "Extracted Text Range", 2 ), Output = #table( type table [ ID = Int64.Type, Description = text ], Split ) in #"Extracted Text Range"However, when I preview the results it's still only showing a single record.
I'm obviously missing something simple...
Hi garycarters
My bad I think I missed couple of stepslet Source = " List:""1"",""Description 1"", ""1"",""Description 1"", ""2"",""Description 2"", ""3"",""Description 3""", #"Text Clean1" = Text.Replace(Source, """", ""), #"Text Clean2" = Text.Replace( #"Text Clean1", "List:", ""), #"Text Split" = Text.Split( #"Text Clean2", "," ), #"List Split" = List.Split( #"Text Split", 2 ), #"List to Table" = #table( type table [ ID = Int64.Type, Description = text ], #"List Split" ), #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"List to Table",{{"ID", Int64.Type}}) in #"Changed Type"Regards,
Mariusz
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
Hi Mariusz: Good day. I saw this post. I have an issue with a list, "locations" I want to split into 2 Columns: locationId and locationName. I have posted this on:
Many thanks in advance.
