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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
6 years ago
Solved

Two value types in one column

Hi! I have two columns in a self-referencing table tracker, both with dates (01/12/2020 format) and strings (e.g. “Pending”). How to preserve both different types considering that another column makes a calculation on those two (date difference)?

 

(this is what I would like to achieve)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My two attempts:

  1. Set a date type: string disappears at refresh
  2. Set a general or string type: calculation won’t be done

Maybe there is some way to perform the calculation in a different way? I'm using

 

 

 

= (StartDate as date, EndDate as date, optional Holidays as list) =>
let
    ListOfDates = List.Dates(StartDate,Number.From(EndDate-StartDate),#duration(1,0,0,0)),
    DeleteHolidays = if Holidays = null then ListOfDates else List.Difference(ListOfDates, Holidays),
    DeleteWeekends = List.Select(DeleteHolidays, each Date.DayOfWeek(_,1) < 5 ),
    CountDays = List.Count(DeleteWeekends)
in
    CountDays

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your invaluable help.

Need Help
  • v-frfei-msft's avatar
    v-frfei-msft
    6 years ago

    Hi Anonymous ,

    We can create a custom column like that.

    if [R date] = "Pending" then 0 else Duration.Days([F date]-Date.FromText([R date]))

    M query for your reference.

    let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("Vc87CoAwEADRu6QOJLv538I+pFPEJvcvFUUcy+FV07tZtrkeczfWiBNx6tWbYftV+sQNSgiAQIiASEiARMiATCiAQqiASmiARhD/ifqfCOR9Hyc=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"R date" = _t, #"F date" = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"R date", type text}, {"F date", type date}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "Custom", each if [R date] = "Pending" then 0 else Duration.Days([F date]-Date.FromText([R date])))
in
    #"Added Custom"

     

     

3 Replies

  • Geradav's avatar
    Geradav
    Responsive Resident
    6 years ago

    Hi Anonymous 

     

    It is not a good practice to mix data types in a column. It is recommended to only have 1 data type per column. Otherwise, you are going to have a lot of errors in your queries.

    Separate both results in different columns.

     

    Let us know how that works

     

    Best

     

    David

  • v-frfei-msft's avatar
    v-frfei-msft
    Community Support
    6 years ago

    Hi Anonymous ,

    We can create a custom column like that.

    if [R date] = "Pending" then 0 else Duration.Days([F date]-Date.FromText([R date]))

    M query for your reference.

    let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("Vc87CoAwEADRu6QOJLv538I+pFPEJvcvFUUcy+FV07tZtrkeczfWiBNx6tWbYftV+sQNSgiAQIiASEiARMiATCiAQqiASmiARhD/ifqfCOR9Hyc=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [#"R date" = _t, #"F date" = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"R date", type text}, {"F date", type date}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "Custom", each if [R date] = "Pending" then 0 else Duration.Days([F date]-Date.FromText([R date])))
in
    #"Added Custom"

     

     

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      6 years ago

      hi v-frfei-msft,

       

      this is what I needed. Thanks so much! 🙂

       

      I've amended it a bit because I had to exclude weekends and holidays. I'm leaving part of the code for future reference:

      ...
#"Invoked Custom Function" = Table.AddColumn(#"Added Conditional Column", "CeT Performance", each if [Transfer Receive Date] = "Pending" then "0" else Datediff(Date.FromText([Transfer Receive Date]), [Transfer finalization Date], holidays[Holiday]))
...

DATEDIFF:
= (StartDate as date, EndDate as date, optional Holidays as list) =>
let
    ListOfDates = List.Dates(StartDate,Number.From(EndDate-StartDate),#duration(1,0,0,0)),
    DeleteHolidays = if Holidays = null then ListOfDates else List.Difference(ListOfDates, Holidays),
    DeleteWeekends = List.Select(DeleteHolidays, each Date.DayOfWeek(_,1) < 5 ),
    CountDays = List.Count(DeleteWeekends)
in
    CountDays