Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Enhance your career with this limited time 50% discount on Fabric and Power BI exams. Ends August 31st. Request your voucher.

Reply
SVUser123
Frequent Visitor

Convert cell list in Col1 to separate columns

Hi Team,

 

I am new to Power BI and stuck in converting my server data into tables.

I got a response from server as below 

 

------------

Column1

------------

List

List

List

List

 

I want to make new table with each of the these lists to seperate columns. 

The number of lists are dynamic per grid.

Please anyone help me with the pq code 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @SVUser123 

I create a sample to have a test.

Sample:

1.png

My Code:

let
Source = #table({"1", "2","3"}, {{ {1,2}, {3,4},{4,5} }}),
    #"Unpivoted Columns" = Table.UnpivotOtherColumns(Source, {}, "Attribute", "Value"),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Unpivoted Columns",{"Attribute"}),
    #"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(#"Removed Columns", "Index", 1, 1, Int64.Type),
    #"Reordered Columns" = Table.ReorderColumns(#"Added Index",{"Index", "Value"}),
    #"Pivoted Column" = Table.Pivot(Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Reordered Columns", {{"Index", type text}}, "en-US"), List.Distinct(Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Reordered Columns", {{"Index", type text}}, "en-US")[Index]), "Index", "Value"),
    #"Merged Columns" = Table.CombineColumns(#"Pivoted Column",{"1", "2","3"}, each List.Transform(List.Zip(_), each Record.FromList(_,{"1","2","3"})),"Merged"),
    #"Expanded Merged" = Table.ExpandListColumn(#"Merged Columns", "Merged"),
    #"Expanded Merged1" = Table.ExpandRecordColumn(#"Expanded Merged", "Merged", {"1", "2","3"}, {"1", "2", "3"})
in
#"Expanded Merged1"

You can copy and update my code steps after #"Removed Columns".  You need to add an Index for your lists and these numbers will be column headers after you pivot the list column. Here I have three lists in one column, so I create an Index from 1 to 3. Then merge and expand merge by M query.

Result is as below.

1.png

Best Regards,
Rico Zhou

 

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2
SVUser123
Frequent Visitor

I did try to use the Split function as

Table.SplitColumn(reqTable, "Column1", Splitter.SplitTextByDelimiter(",")) 

but got an error saying "We cannot conver a value of type List to type Text"

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @SVUser123 

I create a sample to have a test.

Sample:

1.png

My Code:

let
Source = #table({"1", "2","3"}, {{ {1,2}, {3,4},{4,5} }}),
    #"Unpivoted Columns" = Table.UnpivotOtherColumns(Source, {}, "Attribute", "Value"),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Unpivoted Columns",{"Attribute"}),
    #"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(#"Removed Columns", "Index", 1, 1, Int64.Type),
    #"Reordered Columns" = Table.ReorderColumns(#"Added Index",{"Index", "Value"}),
    #"Pivoted Column" = Table.Pivot(Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Reordered Columns", {{"Index", type text}}, "en-US"), List.Distinct(Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Reordered Columns", {{"Index", type text}}, "en-US")[Index]), "Index", "Value"),
    #"Merged Columns" = Table.CombineColumns(#"Pivoted Column",{"1", "2","3"}, each List.Transform(List.Zip(_), each Record.FromList(_,{"1","2","3"})),"Merged"),
    #"Expanded Merged" = Table.ExpandListColumn(#"Merged Columns", "Merged"),
    #"Expanded Merged1" = Table.ExpandRecordColumn(#"Expanded Merged", "Merged", {"1", "2","3"}, {"1", "2", "3"})
in
#"Expanded Merged1"

You can copy and update my code steps after #"Removed Columns".  You need to add an Index for your lists and these numbers will be column headers after you pivot the list column. Here I have three lists in one column, so I create an Index from 1 to 3. Then merge and expand merge by M query.

Result is as below.

1.png

Best Regards,
Rico Zhou

 

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Helpful resources

Announcements
July 2025 community update carousel

Fabric Community Update - July 2025

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric community.

July PBI25 Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - July 2025

Check out the July 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.