Issue with Symbols

[SC22]

Hi All,

I have created a flow to pull reports using Power BI and Power Automate. When I get the report on my onedrive (in excel), the symbols in my columns are missing. An example of this would be if media cost is $2,500 the report pulls 2,500 (without the ‘$’ sign). However, in Power Bi, I do see $2,500. Similarly for formatting of numbers – any value that has a number format ($,%, etc.) is not pulled in the excel. Is there a way which I can get accurate symbols in my report (excel file) on onedrive?

Note: I have changed the format to '$' or '%' (as per requirement) for each column of the report from the format section on the top bar in Power Bi.

[SC22]

Hi @otravers and @Anonymous ,

Thank you for your responses! I was looking for more of some selection fix.

So reiterating, I have data in database which is connected with power bi via amazon redshift and I am creating a report. Now, in power bi desktop, when I select the columns I want in my report, I do see the report as I want it. However, when I use power automate to build a flow and export the report in excel format on my onedrive, I do not get the report as it is in power bi. Formatting of the data changes. For example, as seen in the attached screenshot 1, there is a ‘%’ sign in CTR column and ‘$’ sign in media cost column, those symbols are not included in the excel exported report (on onedrive). Also, 1.91% CTR is show as 0.191, 2.45% is shown as 0.0245, and so on (Screenshot 2).

Is there like a quick fix for this issue? Thank you.

                 

[Anonymous]

Hi @SC22 ，

So you mean exporting the data to excel and finding the missing symbols?
Maybe some conversions happened in this process and caused this situation,  I also suggest you can make changes to the data format directly in the excel file after exporting data.

Best regards,

Community Support Team Selina zhu

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[otravers]

If you read my initial post carefully you'll see that I specified you'd have to script the application of the desired formatting in Excel after exporting the data.

[Anonymous]

Hi @SC22 ,

You mentioned in your question that the symbols don't show up after the data is imported into power bi, where do you mean they don't show up?

I did a test myself and found that if I fix the data format in the excel file, the symbols are displayed properly in the report.

This is my testing data in excel, I fixed the data format of the “target” column to be “Currency”

And then I connect to this excel file through onedrive  in power bi service. This is the dataset generated after the connection.

Use this dataset to create a report, I find that the symbol can be displayed normally.

I hope my testing process will be helpful to you.

Best regards,

Community Support Team Selina zhu

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[otravers · Accepted solution]

If I understand the documentation right, this is working as intended: "visual-specific formatting such as percent of grand total for a measure isn't preserved in Excel". I understand you're exporting via Power Automate but it's probably the same where exporting formatting is out of scope.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/visuals/power-bi-visualization-export-data?tabs=powerbi-de...

You might want to write an OfficeScripts in Excel (web version) that applies the $ formatting to your column, and trigger that script at the end of your Power Automate flow:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/develop/power-automate-integration

If you're looking for a no-code option, the Inforiver matrix custom visual does preserve formatting when exporting to Excel (disclosure: they're a consulting client of mine.)