Add year column

[powerbi-learner]

Hi Power BI experts 🙂

How do I allocate existing data to a year? Do I create a new column in the Excel spreadsheet? Or the Query Editor?

I've created a dashboard from an Excel spreadsheet of data.

Here is the dashboard report:

Here is the query editor view:

And here is the original spreadsheet:

This data was all for calendar year 2016.

I'd like to make a time trend graph on the dashboard for multiple years. I will need to enter data for other years.

But first I need to allocate the data above to the 2016 year.

Should I create a new column in the Excel spreadsheet title Year and fill each row with '2016'?

Or can I create a new column in the Query Editor?

Or is there some other way?

Thanks 🙂

[powerbi-learner · Accepted solution]

This question was solved by Ashish. The solution can be found here:

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Convert-excel-matrix-table-to-flattened-table/m-p/321631#M14...

[DanielRodriguez]

Hi,

in your excel you have the column year, so you need charge this column in power bi.

[powerbi-learner]

How do i do that Daniel?

Please explain like I'm 5 (ELI5).

Thanks.

[parry2k]

@powerbi-learnerare you ok to send your excel and pbix t if it doesn't contain sensitive data. Just put it on google drive and share the link, i will send you the transformed pbix.

[powerbi-learner]

Thanks @parry2kparry2k. You're a legend!!

I have a lot of trouble transforming my Excel spreadsheets in the Query Editor so that each variable has its own column.

I'm having trouble getting my head around Transpose, Pivot, Unpivot etc

With the new column 'Year' added I just can't seem to get the columns set up correctly in the Query Editor like they were when Year wasn't present.

And having trouble getting my Excel sheet in the right format.

Thanks.

Here is the Google Drive link containing the pbix file and the Excel spreadsheet. Data is in the tab "All Data":

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n6JbptK6smXQOJazEViXIepAkrl7obxD?usp=sharing 

[DanielRodriguez]

Hi, I am new in this topic, but I found a solution.

please review the file shared.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18HbGmC1Z-hi1M6Xzn8gWuY2Tl-UpBpr2/view?usp=sharing

 ready!

[powerbi-learner]

@DanielRodriguez thanks for your effort. It's not quite what I'm looking for.

My column headings should be:

Year, DHB, Population, Enrolled, Base Population

Please see the Edit Query screenshot above.

I had a nice flat table in PBI until I added the year column in order to make a time trend line graph.

[parry2k]

I guess the best way is to add year column in excel sheet, although you can still create column in powerbi and assing year value to it but you have to put the logic which year value to assign to each row, so coming from excel will make it easy.

[powerbi-learner]

Thanks for your response parry2k. Would I have to:

1. add a column for 'Year'
2. then connect Power BI to the modified Excel spreadsheet
3. then run 'Edit Query' and run through all my 'Applied Steps' again?

Or is there a quicker way? I've got five years of data that I must add the year to (2012 - 2016). 

Should I keep the data for different years in separate spreadsheets or merge them all into one?

Here are all the steps I applied to transform the data (right side of screen):

[parry2k]

no you don't need to change anything in your power query steps, just make sure the step where you use removed columns that year (new column) is not removed.

Basically you can go to each step to make sure year column is part of model, no need to change anything.

[powerbi-learner]

I've added a year column, along with data from other years.

Do you have any advice on how I'd transform the data to make it organised like it was before? With the Year column in place I'm just getting tangled up when I try to transform the data into the nice table I had when there was just one year of data.

Thanks so much. Here's how the data looked when there was just one year. I assumed that I just needed to add another column with the year: