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

The Power BI DataViz World Championships are on! With four chances to enter, you could win a spot in the LIVE Grand Finale in Las Vegas. Show off your skills.

Reply
richard-powerbi
Post Patron
Post Patron

How to remove and add keys? Table.ReplaceKeys how does it work?

I have a SQL table loaded in PBI. I want to create my own primary keys and qualify them as keys in PBI.

The documentation on Table.ReplaceKeys is really bad. Can anyone explain how it works? Or is there another way of doing this?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
dax
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @richard-powerbi , 

It seems to change key, you could try below M code and refer to power-query-m-primer-part13-tables-table-think-ii  and this post  for details.

let

   
  
  Source = #table(
    {"CompanyID", "Name", "Location"}, 
      {
        {1, "ABC Company", "Chicago"}, 
        {2, "ABC Company", "Charlotte"}, 
        {3, "Some Other Company", "Cincinnati"}
      }
    ),
  KeysTagged = Table.AddKey(Source, {"CompanyID"}, true),
  aa=Table.ReplaceKeys(
        KeysTagged,
        {
            [Columns = {"Location"},
            Primary = true]
        }
    )
in
 Table.Keys(aa)

Best Regards,
Zoe Zhi

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

4 REPLIES 4
dax
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @richard-powerbi , 

It seems to change key, you could try below M code and refer to power-query-m-primer-part13-tables-table-think-ii  and this post  for details.

let

   
  
  Source = #table(
    {"CompanyID", "Name", "Location"}, 
      {
        {1, "ABC Company", "Chicago"}, 
        {2, "ABC Company", "Charlotte"}, 
        {3, "Some Other Company", "Cincinnati"}
      }
    ),
  KeysTagged = Table.AddKey(Source, {"CompanyID"}, true),
  aa=Table.ReplaceKeys(
        KeysTagged,
        {
            [Columns = {"Location"},
            Primary = true]
        }
    )
in
 Table.Keys(aa)

Best Regards,
Zoe Zhi

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

Another question, is below code correct if I want two columns to act as one composite key? Both columns do not have unique values, only the combination of them is unique.

 

= Table.ReplaceKeys(Source, {[Columns = List.Combine({{"Column1"}, {"Column2"}), Primary = true]})

 

Later on I will merge on these two columns and I would like this utilize this for performance. Does above code work for this?

@dax

Anyone knows?

Hi @richard-powerbi,

You could simplify it as

... {[Columns = {"Column1", "Column2"}, Primary = true]})

and as long as it's unique you should see some performance improvements.



Spyros Mavroforos

Data Consultant


Find me on LinkedIn or drop me an email

eSpyros

Helpful resources

Announcements
Las Vegas 2025

Join us at the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference

March 31 - April 2, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Use code MSCUST for a $150 discount!

FebPBI_Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - February 2025

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

Feb2025 NL Carousel

Fabric Community Update - February 2025

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

Top Solution Authors