Assign identifier to rows using multiple columns

[Anonymous]

I'm attempting to identify duplicate groups and assign identifiers based on 2 columns, Name and SSN:

Group ID	Name	SSN
	Jane Doe	111111111
	Jane Doe	222222222
	Jane Doe	111111111
	John Doe	333333333
	John Doe

Match criteria is both Name and SSN match or Name matches and SSN is blank:

Group ID	Name	SSN
1	Jane Doe	111111111
2	Jane Doe	222222222
1	Jane Doe	111111111
3	John Doe	333333333
3	John Doe

Any help is much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

@Jimmy801 Genius! Thank you very much!

[Jimmy801 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous 

you can Fill-down the SSN-column, Group by Name and SSN and add a index column. Expand the grouped table afterwards. Here the M-code

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45W8krMS1VwyU9V0lEyhAGlWB0UCSMYQJdA05GfkQeVMIYBdAkFpdhYAA==", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type nullable text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Name = _t, SSN = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Name", type text}, {"SSN", Int64.Type}}),
    #"Filled Down" = Table.FillDown(#"Changed Type",{"SSN"}),
    #"Grouped Rows" = Table.Group(#"Filled Down", {"Name", "SSN"}, {{"AllRows", each _, type table [Name=text, SSN=number]}}),
    #"Removed Other Columns" = Table.SelectColumns(#"Grouped Rows",{"AllRows"}),
    #"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(#"Removed Other Columns", "Index", 1, 1),
    #"Expanded AllRows" = Table.ExpandTableColumn(#"Added Index", "AllRows", {"Name", "SSN"}, {"Name", "SSN"})
in
    #"Expanded AllRows"

Copy paste this code to the advanced editor in a new blank query to see how the solution works.

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Have fun

Jimmy