Replace non blanks with 1

[hdhillon]

All,

In Power Query, How do I replace all non blanks with 1

I have tried the Excel Find and Replace method of   *  to   1 

However this does not seem to work in Power BI

[Lon7171]

I had this issue as well where I wanted to replace dates with 1 and leave null values. I converted the dates to whole numbers then I added a custom column and divided the whole number by itself giving a 1 for the date values and null for null values.

[dufoq3]

Hi @Lon7171, you could do something like this:

Before

After

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WMjIwMtE1MAQipVgdJK4RKtcYzEUQcAkzpdhYAA==", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type nullable text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Date = _t]),
    ChangedType = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Date", type date}}),
    ReplacedDate = Table.TransformColumns(ChangedType, {{"Date", each if _ <> null then 1 else null, Int64.Type}})
in
    ReplacedDate

[Anonymous]

Powerquery

= IFERROR(IF(LEN(related(column_name))>0,"Y","-"),"-")

[Anonymous]

I know you said replace, but you could easily add a column like this:

Table.AddColumn(PriorStep, "NewColumnName", each if [Column] <> null then 1 else [Column], type number)

[wdx223_Daniel]

@hdhillon click the button beside the Edit Bar and input this formula

=Table.ReplaceValue(LastStepName,null,1,(x,y.z)=>if x=y or x="" then x else z,Table.ColumnNames(LastStepName))

LastStepName, is the last step name in your original M code

[edhans · Accepted solution]

Hi @hdhillon , try this:

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WSi/KLy1QMFTSUQJhUwOlWB10QUMDrKLmpmiiRljVGuMUNUIRNYKai2KsEZoTgEwQAjETi1PSYNxYAA==", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type nullable text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Group = _t, Month = _t, Value = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Value", Int64.Type}, {"Month", Int64.Type}}),
    #"Replaced Value" = 
        Table.ReplaceValue(
            #"Changed Type",
            each [Group],
            each
                let
                    varReplacementValue = if Text.Length([Group]) > 0 then "1" else [Group]
                in
            varReplacementValue,
            Replacer.ReplaceText,
            {"Group"}
        )
in
    #"Replaced Value"

It turns this:

Into this:

It looks for any field that has a length greater than 0 and replaces that field with "1" if it does.

How to use M code provided in a blank query:
1) In Power Query, select New Source, then Blank Query
2) On the Home ribbon, select "Advanced Editor" button
3) Remove everything you see, then paste the M code I've given you in that box.
4) Press Done
5) See this article if you need help using this M code in your model.