Forum Discussion

AlexHeinze's avatar
AlexHeinze
Frequent Visitor
4 years ago
Solved

XML input - how to handle missing tables

I have an XML file that contains multiple tables. Unfortunately the external system excludes tables (and columns) from the XML if they have no data, so this breaks my import in Power Query:   let S...
Need Help
  • AlexHeinze's avatar
    AlexHeinze
    4 years ago

    I think I found a solution. I created a dummy query that holds the optional XML elements. I then appended the dummy query....

     

    let
    Source = Xml.Tables(File.Contents(SavedXML)),
    #"Appended Query" = Table.Combine({Source, Dummy_XML}),

     

    ...which worked if the XML was missing. If the XML already had the element, I ended up with a duplicate row that I removed using


    #"Removed Duplicates" = Table.Distinct(#"Appended Query",{"Name"}),

     

    Seems to do the job.

v-kkf-msft's avatar
v-kkf-msft
Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
4 years ago

Hi AlexHeinze ,

 

Are you importing an empty table as shown below? 

 

 

Perhaps you can select the "Source" step in the already imported table and then you will be able to see the empty table.

 

 

Best Regards,
Winniz

 

  • AlexHeinze's avatar
    AlexHeinze
    Frequent Visitor
    4 years ago

    I think I found a solution. I created a dummy query that holds the optional XML elements. I then appended the dummy query....

     

    let
    Source = Xml.Tables(File.Contents(SavedXML)),
    #"Appended Query" = Table.Combine({Source, Dummy_XML}),

     

    ...which worked if the XML was missing. If the XML already had the element, I ended up with a duplicate row that I removed using


    #"Removed Duplicates" = Table.Distinct(#"Appended Query",{"Name"}),

     

    Seems to do the job.