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V-lianl-msft

How to extract values of date/currency amount from text strings in Power query

Scenario: 
Sometimes we encounter a bunch of mixed strings, which contain various types of information, such as dates, numbers, currencies, etc. How to extract date/currency amount from such text strings?

 

Sample data:

V-lianl-msft_0-1623054618817.png

 

Expected result:

V-lianl-msft_1-1623054640978.png

 


Part1: How to extract dates from text strings
1. Add a new column that splits each cell into multiple elements by delimeter “ ” (Space) and stores them in lists

V-lianl-msft_2-1623054667853.png


2. Iterate over the elements in lists and convert them to dates.If the element can’t be converted , errors will be returned and we need to use ‘try...otherwise..’ to replace these ‘error’ values with ‘null’ values.

V-lianl-msft_3-1623054681638.png


3. Remove the empty elements in each list and extract each first element by index value {0}.
If there is no element in the list, an error will be reported.

V-lianl-msft_4-1623054703172.png

(We still use ‘try...otherwise…’ to remove error)

V-lianl-msft_5-1623054718816.png

 

4. Heretofore, we have realized the extraction of date. If you still need to convert it into a specified text date format, please try function ‘Date.toText’
The final formula for the date column is as follows:

=Date.ToText(
try
List.RemoveNulls(
List.Transform(
Text.Split([Source]," "
),each try Date.FromText(_) otherwise null
)
){0}
otherwise null,"YYYY-MM-DD"
)

 

Part2: How to extract currency amount from text strings
1. Add a new column that splits each cell into multiple elements by delimeter “$” and stores them in lists. e.g. row1:{xxx 2021-12-17 11:01:20 xx},{45 x}

V-lianl-msft_6-1623054777466.png

 

2. Iterate over the elements in lists, and sequentially get the first y={1..20} values of each element, and store the the returned result in secondary lists.

V-lianl-msft_7-1623054787771.png


3. Try to convert the elements in secondary lists to numbers, if error, return “null“
e.g. row1->list1-> list1.1{null,null……}, list1.2 {4,45, null,null……}

V-lianl-msft_8-1623054800563.png


4. Extract the largest value in each secondary
e.g. row1->list1->list1.1 {null} ,list1.2{45} ->list1{null,45}

V-lianl-msft_9-1623054825118.png


5. Remove the empty element in each list and extract the first element by index value {0}.

V-lianl-msft_10-1623054837573.png


The final formula for the currency column is as follows:

=List.RemoveNulls(
List.Transform(
Text.Split([Source],"$"),(x)=>List.Max(
List.Transform({1..20},(y)=>try Number.From(
Text.Start(x,y)
)
otherwise null
)
)
)
){0}

It’s expected to get a result as below:

V-lianl-msft_11-1623054877858.png


Related links:
List.Transform:Performs the function on each item in the list and returns the new list.
List.RemoveNulls:Removes null values from a list.
Date.FromText: Returns a Date value from a set of date formats and culture value.
Text.Split:Returns a list containing parts of a text value that are delimited by a separator text value.
Text.Start:Returns the count of characters from the start of a text value.
Number.From: Returns a number value from a value.

 

Author: Eason Fang   

Reviewer: Ula Huang, Kerry Wang