keepind dates as column headers

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have date in excel where my dates aare my column headers- ed, Apr-20, MAy-20, etc. Now when I import my data in Power BI the headers are changed to text. But I need them to stay in date format as I need to show the change of month over month .

Pls help!

[Jimmy801 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous 

in your case your headers in Excel are stored as date (01/01/2020) but visualized in another format like Apr-20. As Power BI is reading the real data in the cells, not the visualisation. So, or you transform your data in Excel like real text or you apply something like that

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WMjDRNzDUNzIwMlDSUTIwReaYwTmxOtFKhkAhIyA2VoqNBQA=", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type nullable text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Column1 = _t, Column2 = _t, Column3 = _t]),
    #"Added Index" = Table.AddIndexColumn(Source, "Index", 0, 1),
    TransformFirstRow = Table.FromRecords( Table.TransformRows
    (
        #"Added Index",
        (rec)=> if rec[Index]=0 then Record.FromTable(Table.TransformColumns(Record.ToTable(rec), {{"Value", each Date.ToText(Date.From(_,"en-US"),"MMM-YY","en-US")}})) else rec
    )),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(TransformFirstRow,{"Index"}),
    PromoteHeader = Table.PromoteHeaders(#"Removed Columns")
in
    PromoteHeader

Excel-import

after transformation

I've simulate the source-step as if you would access to your Excel-sheet

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

[Greg_Deckler]

@Anonymous Can you just rename them? Otherwise, before your promoted headers step try transforming the data to text. Or possibly edit the Change Type step? Would have to see your Advaned Editor code.