Using a table column as a list of values for a parameter

[maracles]

I am learning to use parameters and I want to use them to make scraping data from IMDb easier. 

I want to pull in a couple of fields of data per film (release date, country and director) from IMDb and I have a table, one of the columns of which is IMDB ID. 

From there I have created a new source from Web and have used url parts  to identify the film ID that needs change per query. 

See below:



I have then created a parameter called IMDB ID which I want to use to populate this URL. See below:

My issue is that I don't want to manually have to add every IMDB title ID to this list of values in the parameter. Instead I have an existing table which contains data imported from a workbook. One of the columns on this table is IMDB ID. Is there no way that I can use this dynamically changing table column to populate the list of values?

[v-xjiin-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @maracles,

=> Instead I have an existing table which contains data imported from a workbook. One of the columns on this table is IMDB ID.

To create a parameter and give it values from this column. You can refer to following steps:

1. Go to Edit Queries, choose the IMDB ID column, go to Transform -> Convert to List. Then you'll get an signle list with IMDB ID values. Please be noticed, if you want to keep original table, duplicate a table before doing convert. Also you can remove duplicates inside this column. Please refer to following sample:

 Original TableConvert column RecordType to List and remove duplicates

2. Create a new parameter, set the Suggested Values to Query (the list we generated above), and give a default value.

3. Close&Apply. Then you can see all the values in the column are in the drop down box of this parameter.

Thanks,
Xi Jin.

[maracles]

Thanks @v-xjiin-msft,

Your steps have worked to list values in the parameter,so I've marked it as the answer.

Unfortunately it seems that I cannot use that method as "Formula.Firewall: Query 'Additional Details' (step 'Source') references other queries or steps, so it may not directly access a data source. Please rebuild this data combination."

So I will need to find an alternative way to scrape the data.