Power Query Append Queries Not Working - Mismatch Column Names

Appending tables in Power Query is fairly straightforward. The great thing about using Power Query is that the files can all be in one folder and with the magic of the append feature in power query it quick and easy. That is unless the tables in the files are different like having mismatch column names. Lets assume that the column structure is the same; the tables in each file have the same number of columns and its just one sheet per workbook and even that is the same (i.e., Sheet1). However the column names in each workbook is slightly different. For example column one in one file is called "ID" and column one in the second file is called "IDs". The one additional character can make appending the files produce the wrong result. You can edit each file to make sure the column names are the same and that is not too much trouble if it is just a few files. But if it is more than ten files then it becomes a chore, especially if this is something that is done on a recurring basis. There is a workaround, so check out the video to learn how.

Use Power Query to Change Text in Cells or Columns

Change text in Power Query is easy to do. Some transformations include change the case (i.e., upper vs. lower), adding or removing spaces and changing special characters. All this can be done with in the Ribbon tools to the text in the cells. However if you wanted to change all the headers cells to make the text change case or remove characters, that would involved going into the M code. It's not hard, but it's worth it if you have a lot of column headers to change.

Power Query Append Queries Not Working - Mismatch Columns Names & Order

Power Query can append tables from a folder effortlessly when those tables are the same (i.e., same number of columns and same column header names). But if the columns have different field names or the order of the columns are not in order, the append process will not work well. However there are methods to make it work and this video will cover one of them.

Power Query Append Worksheets in Same Workbook

If you wanted to do a search for keywords in the text of a column or multiple columns you could use the find all feature in Excel. But if this was something where you wanted to bring back the records for those columns that had the keyword and report it back to a stakeholder, you'd want something more complete. Enter Power Query; it can provide the mechanism for you to do keyword search in multiple columns and systematically bring back those rows or records and also take into account the case (i.e., case sensitive words) of the keywords.

Keyword Search in Multiple Columns with Power Query

If you wanted to do a search for keywords in the text of a column or multiple columns you could use the find all feature in Excel. But if this was something where you wanted to bring back the records for those columns that had the keyword and report it back to a stakeholder, you'd want something more complete. Enter Power Query; it can provide the mechanism for you to do keyword search in multiple columns and systematically bring back those rows or records and also take into account the case (i.e., case sensitive words) of the keywords.

Excel Lookup to Return the Last Value

Usually when you're doing lookups in Excel, it brings back the first value that matches. But what if you want the last value and did not want to sort the table to do that? You can actually perform this type of lookup quite easily in Office 365 version of Excel with the XLOOKUP function. But what if you don't have O365? Well you're not stuck, cause you can combine some functions (INDEX, LARGE, IF and ROW) to do the same thing. I'll show examples of both and offer a bonus on how to create a drop down list near the end.

Use the Power Query Data Type Customization

In the Microsoft Office subscription or Microsoft 365 version of Excel there's data types that let you get a lot more information from just one value in a cell. There is a stock data type that lets you view the latest information of that public company like the stock price or shares outstanding; and that is just based on the name of the company in one cell. Now you can actually create you own custom data type courtesy of Power Query. Think of it as a small table or list that you can expand from just one cell in your worksheet. You can have any time of structured table of related information and it all gets encapsulations in one column of multiple row cells. See the video to learn how this can be done.