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

Get Fabric Certified for FREE during Fabric Data Days. Don't miss your chance! Request now

Reply
Anonymous
Not applicable

Find nth occurrence of a string

Hi folks,

 

I have been trying to find any resource that would explain how to get nth occurrence of a string in Power Query and this seems no easy task. There are lots of examples how to find nth character, but I am looking for formula that will find second occurrence of "---" in the following example string:

 

123---gg---QwQ+++111+++---mmm---

 

Basically my formula(function) should return 8 in this example. Would be gratefull for any ideas.

 

 

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Vijay_A_Verma
Super User
Super User

Actually this is fairly easy as Text.BeforeDelimiter offers you the choice to control the no. of occurence of the delimiter (on 0 basis. Hence, for 2nd occurrence, you will have to use 1). Use below formula. This would give the result of 8.

= Text.Length(Text.BeforeDelimiter([Column1],"---",1))

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1
Vijay_A_Verma
Super User
Super User

Actually this is fairly easy as Text.BeforeDelimiter offers you the choice to control the no. of occurence of the delimiter (on 0 basis. Hence, for 2nd occurrence, you will have to use 1). Use below formula. This would give the result of 8.

= Text.Length(Text.BeforeDelimiter([Column1],"---",1))

Helpful resources

Announcements
Fabric Data Days Carousel

Fabric Data Days

Advance your Data & AI career with 50 days of live learning, contests, hands-on challenges, study groups & certifications and more!

October Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - October 2025

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

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.