Merge all available Columns Power Query

[Anonymous]

Hi All

This is Probably a simple one for anyone who understand M Language..

I'm pulling text from a PDF and need to know how i Merge all columns into 1 in Power Query when the number of columns chnages each refresh.. i've built the below query in power query (my M language is not the best) which works however if i refresh the query and the number of columns in the data set has change it will error. so what i want instead is the query to merge all the available columns. 

example below i have 23 columns which i can merge and combine all the text into 1 cell in 1 column but next time i refresh i may only i may have 26 columns or only 8 columns so the query will errorBefore Mergewhat I need as the end product

This is my M Query

let
Source = Pdf.Tables(File.Contents("C:\Users\Jimmy.Smith\Downloads\Russia.pdf"), [Implementation="1.1"]),
Page1 = Source{[Id="Page001"]}[Data],
#"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Page1,{{"Column1", type text}, {"Column2", type text}, {"Column3", type text}, {"Column4", type text}, {"Column5", type number}, {"Column6", type number}, {"Column7", type number}, {"Column8", type number}, {"Column9", type number}}),
#"Filtered Rows" = Table.SelectRows(#"Changed Type", each ([Column5] = null)),
#"Removed Bottom Rows" = Table.RemoveLastN(#"Filtered Rows",3),
#"Filtered Rows1" = Table.SelectRows(#"Removed Bottom Rows", each ([Column4] <> null)),
#"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Filtered Rows1",{"Column1", "Column2", "Column3", "Column5", "Column6", "Column7", "Column8", "Column9"}),
#"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(#"Removed Columns", "Index", 1, 1, Int64.Type),
#"Reordered Columns" = Table.ReorderColumns(#"Added Index",{"Index", "Column4"}),
#"Renamed Columns" = Table.RenameColumns(#"Reordered Columns",{{"Column4", "Report"}}),
#"Transposed Table" = Table.Transpose(#"Renamed Columns"),
#"Merged Columns" = Table.CombineColumns(Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Transposed Table", {{"Column1", type text}, {"Column2", type text}, {"Column3", type text}, {"Column4", type text}, {"Column5", type text}, {"Column6", type text}, {"Column7", type text}, {"Column8", type text}, {"Column9", type text}, {"Column10", type text}, {"Column11", type text}, {"Column12", type text}, {"Column13", type text}, {"Column14", type text}, {"Column15", type text}, {"Column16", type text}, {"Column17", type text}, {"Column18", type text}, {"Column19", type text}, {"Column20", type text}, {"Column21", type text}, {"Column22", type text}, {"Column23", type text}}, "en-GB"),{"Column1", "Column2", "Column3", "Column4", "Column5", "Column6", "Column7", "Column8", "Column9", "Column10", "Column11", "Column12", "Column13", "Column14", "Column15", "Column16", "Column17", "Column18", "Column19", "Column20", "Column21", "Column22", "Column23"},Combiner.CombineTextByDelimiter(" ", QuoteStyle.None),"Merged")
in
#"Merged Columns"

[Anonymous]

Thanks to both of you, i knew there would be a simple solution! Much Appreciated

[Anonymous]

In general if you have to apply a function to a dinamically changing set of columns, you should get a list of column in a variable, as, f.i., cols=Table.ColumnNames(yourtab), then use this variable-list intead of hard coded list of column names: f.i. Table.CombineColumns(youratab, cols, combinerFunction, "colCombined").

But in this specific case I wonder if it is necessary to proceed in this way, considering that you have a column of textual values you transpose to have them in the same row in different columns.

I think it is easier to act on the original column.

but I could confirm this if you made available an easily copyable source file and maybe you explained better what you want to achieve.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rocco

when i pull the data from the PDF i end up with multiple rows of text in 1 column (this is what i'm transposing to columns to then combine as i wasn't sure of a way to merge rows?). my end goal is combine of all of the text into a single cell with a space in between each combination. Basically all of the individual rows of text should combined to make a readable paragraph of text in 1 cell.

I'm unsure of how to attached a PDF file on here but below is how the text reads before i transpose, as you can see its all in seperate rows. the Index i added just i could keep the correct order, but if it was all combined in 1 cell the index would not be needed.

hopefully this better explains what i am trying to doon here

[Anonymous]

the solution I was thinking of is the one indicated by @Jimmy801 .

if you need a more specific example on a sample of your data, you have to upload the file somehow

[Jimmy801 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous 

use Text.Combine and refer to your report-column. Heren an example

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WMlTSUXJ0UorViVYyAjKdXcBMYyDT1Q3MNAEy3T30wGxTINtTKTYWAA==", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type nullable text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Index = _t, Report = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Index", Int64.Type}, {"Report", type text}}),
    CombineText = Text.Combine(#"Changed Type"[Report], " ")
in
    CombineText

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