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mjsch8686
New Member

Power Query - not recognizing "tab" in tab-delimited CSV files

Hello,

I was working with Power BI 2019 and had no problems importing tab delimited files.  However I was recently updated to 2021 (January).  Now on the import process, the power query editor will not recognize the tabs and chooses the delimiter of commas.  I click connect and go nowhere because it only reads the first column of the SAP data.  

 

I checked the source formula for the Power BI 2019 file that I made (now in Jan 2021 Power BI).  The source formula shows as follows:

= Csv.Document(Parameter1,[Delimiter="            ", Columns=25, Encoding=65001, QuoteStyle=QuoteStyle.None])  (The Delimter here is not spaces but rather an actual result of hitting "tab" on the keyboard)

 

I checked the source formula for the Power BI 2021 file (made in Jan 2021 Power BI).  The source formula shows as follows:

= Csv.Document(Parameter1,[Delimiter="#(tab)", Columns=1, Encoding=65001, QuoteStyle=QuoteStyle.None])

 

I went in to my source formula and changed the "Columns" to 25 so now the Power BI 2021 formula shows like this:

= Csv.Document(Parameter1,[Delimiter="#(tab)", Columns=25, Encoding=65001, QuoteStyle=QuoteStyle.None])

This seems to fix my issue temporarily. 

 

My question is what is causing this?  Are there are any permanent work arounds where we don't have to interfere with the Source formula?  I ask this as many of my colleagues are not advanced Power Query users.  Additionally, we have many files where we don't always know how many columns are in them when we're importing into Power BI.    It would be best for us to have the power query editor load correctly like it did in Power BI 2019.   Also, I can't update my version any further at this time as I work for a  bureaucratic group and such updates are wrapped in red tape.   

 

Thank you for your help!

-M

 

1 REPLY 1
lbendlin
Super User
Super User

You can omit the Columns=  part entirely.  It is there mostly to protect you from upstream changes (let's say you are usually getting 25 columns but all of a sudden the upstream system sends 25000)

 

Can you post a sanitized sample file?  Are you sure your data is UTF-8 encoded?

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