Alphanumeric column error

[pooramit4]

I am PBI beginer. I have a dataset in excel with Duration column as Alphanumeric. Below is the snapshot

When loading it to Power BI, getting error for YTD.

Is there any other way to write this YTD so that I do not get the error and the sheet is uploaded in proper manner.

[foodd]

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[collinsg]

Good day pooramit4,

As AlienSx suggests it would be preferable to prepare the data upstream. If you have to deal with the data in Power Query you can transform the Duration column as follows,

1. Check each entry to see if it starts with YTD.
2. Transform the entry if it starts with YTD.

Here is sample code.

let
  Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WMjIwMjYwVdJRCijKTylNLsnMz1OK1aGeeGSIi4KBqa6R0eCUigUA", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type nullable text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Duration = _t, Area = _t]),
  #"Transform YTD" = Table.TransformColumns(Source, {{"Duration", each if Text.StartsWith(_,"YTD") then "20" & Text.Range(_,7,2) & Text.Range(_,4,2) else _, type text}})
in
  #"Transform YTD"

giving...

Hope this helps.

[pooramit4]

Thanks @collinsg for your support. 

But this code is too complicated for me.

In the image that I shared, the duration column has both numeric and alphanumeric dates like - the normal month date in DDYYMM Format as 202305 & YTD format like YTD 05-22 i.e. YTD MM YY.

Now to proceed with PBI, I have to normalise this column separately, I suppose.

As soon as I upload the sheet in PBI, the rows with YTD shows error.

How do I normalise this YTD. Or if I take it in different column, then whats the procedure.

[collinsg · Accepted solution]

Good morning @pooramit4 ,

To cater for your data being numeric and alphanumeric I've added an initial conversion to text - Text.From(_), I finish by converting text values back to numeric - Value.FromText(...). If you add the following step to your Power Query query your data it will produce an output of numeric dates. Replace #"Previous Step" with the name of your previous step.

= Table.TransformColumns(
  #"Previous Step", 
  {{"Duration", 
    each if Text.StartsWith(Text.From(_),"YTD") 
    then Value.FromText("20" & Text.Range(_,7,2) & Text.Range(_,4,2)) 
    else _, type text
  }})

 This...

gives...

Hope this helps.

[AlienSx]

@pooramit4 transform Duration column to text before loading.

[pooramit4]

Thanks @AlienSx for you support.

But its not working as the column has both dates in DDYYMM Format as 202305 & YTD format like YTD 05-22 i.e. YTD MM YY.

Is there any other way?