Forum Discussion

otravers's avatar
otravers
Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion
7 years ago

Dataflows / PQO: query dependencies on other queries, parameters, functions?

A feature that I love in Power Query across Excel, Power BI Desktop, and Visual Studio, is that I can copy a query from one, paste it into the other, and all that queries dependencies will also get imported automatically, which might include:

 

- Other queries (think Append or Combine)

- Parameters (think API parameters, cloud file paths)

- Functions (think API call or a whole set of transformations)

 

With a single copy/paste action I might copy 12 different objects without having to even know about the underlying query dependencies.

 

I don't see any part of the Dataflow PQO experience where I could paste a query from the desktop tools. I don't think the workflow above is currently supported in the browser, but just in case, did I miss it? Right-clicking on the white space of the left pane in Edit Queries in PQO (my best guess as to where it would make sense that it works) doesn't show Paste (after copying a query from PQ in PBI Desktop):

 

 

Otherwise, will this be supported? It is fairly tedious and error-prone to have to recreate everything from blank queries.

 

Also, parameters and functions are not yet in PQO, are they?

 

EDIT: I posted this request, vote if you're interested!

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/36184816-copy-paste-m-queries-with-dependencies-from-deskto

Need Help

7 Replies

  • yaronc's avatar
    yaronc
    Icon for Power BI Team rankPower BI Team
    7 years ago

    Hi otravers,

     

    You can use Get-Data and then choose blank query. There you can paste the M script from Power BI Desktop.

    Another alternative is edit an existing M script by clicking on the right button on a query then choose 'Advanced editor'.

     

    Hope that it helps.

     

    Thanks,

    Yaron

     

    • otravers's avatar
      otravers
      Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion
      7 years ago

      yaronc I know, I mentioned starting from a blank query in my post. As I said that's not nearly as efficient as done a single copy/paste to get all dependencies imported in one swoop.

      • musicbydannyd's avatar
        musicbydannyd
        Icon for Advocate IV rankAdvocate IV
        7 years ago

        otravers, finally got around to testing Dataflows. Pasted this simple dynamic EndDate parameter from Power BI to a blank query:

         

        let
  Source = #datetime(Date.Year(Date.AddDays(DateTime.LocalNow(),-1)), Date.Month(Date.AddDays(DateTime.LocalNow(),-1)), Date.Day(Date.AddDays(DateTime.LocalNow(),-1)), 23, 59, 59)
in
  Source

        and Dataflow insists on converting to a table before considering it "valid". Anyone know a workaround?

         

         

        Thanks, DD