Trasnsforming data type from text to decimal number

[mancdave]

Hi Guys,

Im having an issue with transforming data from text to decimal number, please see error below.

let
Source = #"_Population Growth Rate",
#"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(Source, "Row Number" ,1),
#"Kept Errors" = Table.SelectRowsWithErrors(#"Added Index", {"Rank", "Country", "Population growth rate (%)"}),
#"Reordered Columns" = Table.ReorderColumns(#"Kept Errors", {"Row Number", "Rank", "Country", "Population growth rate (%)"})
in

Added index was added automatically, i am going through a tutorial on Lynda.com " Learning power bi desktop", Chapter 3 " cleaning up data"

The data is an .xlsx format and im running  latest version of pwer bi desk top. Any help would be appreciated

[mancdave]

Hi Guys i seem to be having an error i have a tutorial video from Lynda.com " Learning microsoft power bi desktop" , Chapter 3 "cleaning up data". The excercise files was provided by them.

Basically i am changing the data type from text to decimal number and it is producing an error:

let
Source = #"_Population Growth Rate",
#"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(Source, "Row Number" ,1),
#"Kept Errors" = Table.SelectRowsWithErrors(#"Added Index", {"Rank", "Country", "Population growth rate (%)"}),
#"Reordered Columns" = Table.ReorderColumns(#"Kept Errors", {"Row Number", "Rank", "Country", "Population growth rate (%)"})
in

I did not add the index and the tutorial video doesnt produce these errors either. Any chance anyone knows how/why this error is occuring, This is from an .xlsx file.

[mancdave · Accepted solution]

I seemed to have found the issue, this is due to characters from text to decimal symbol, I replaced the negative symbol on the column to decimal compliant symbol

symbol to replace with eg  "−"  > "-"   note the subtle differences. Using the replace Value tool on the transform tab