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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
6 years ago
Solved

Filling null cells from a different column

I'm new to Power Query and PowerBI and feel like this should be relatively simple but I haen't figured it out quite yet.

 

I have an incomplete column of data that has some null cells. I want to fill the null cells in Column A with the values in Column B, but only the null cells. If the cells in Column A have a value, I want to keep those values. And furthermore, if Column B happens to be null as well, how do you get it to get the value from Column C?

 

Update: I've tried setting up a conditional column as shown below but I don't think its recognizing the null values because it just returns the column I have setup in the Else condition and I still have the nulls.

 

  • gpoggi's avatar
    gpoggi
    6 years ago

    Yep, you are using space " " and blank doesn't have spaces, so try to compare to nothing between quotes "" it should work.

     

    Any question, just let me know.

     

    Regards,

     

    Gian Carlo Poggi

4 Replies

  • gpoggi's avatar
    gpoggi
    Responsive Resident

    Hi aharris15, your conditional column setup seems to be ok, and other way to get the Columns C value when Column B is null is creating a Custom Column with this code:

    if

      [Column A] = null

    then

      if

        [Column B] = null

      then

        [Column C]

      else

        [Column B]

    else

      [Column A]


    This should work, but one question regarding your conditional column, it should work as it is, so maybe the problem is about your nulls, did you confirm that Column A contains nulls instead of (blank) values? if you did, Could you send a sample of your data so we can help you to figure it out what is going on?

     

    Regards,

     

    Gian Carlo Poggi

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable

      So my cells are actually blank - they do not have null in them. I tried putting " " instead of null but still no luck. Is there something else I need to put there instead?

      • gpoggi's avatar
        gpoggi
        Responsive Resident

        Yep, you are using space " " and blank doesn't have spaces, so try to compare to nothing between quotes "" it should work.

         

        Any question, just let me know.

         

        Regards,

         

        Gian Carlo Poggi