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WALEED
Advocate I
Advocate I

Power Query: Force Excel File Import to Use Text Type for All Columns

Gents,

 

My issue is when initially importing; some references like "00" get read as a number and automagically changed to "0". Converting back to text in Power Query won't revert the damage done!

 

I'm using:

Source = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents("B:\BP\Work Exchange\Transformation Power BI\DATA.TR.xlsx"), true, null),
Sheet1_Sheet = Source{[Item="Sheet1",Kind="Sheet"]}[Data],

I've tried changing the last part of the first line "null" into true/false without success.

I've tried leaving the headers in the first row until a later stage but they still get read as (ABC/123) rather than (ABC) which meddles with my values all the same.

I've tried turning the setting off for auto-detection of types. It still changes the values automatically!

Capture.PNG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The excel sheet imported had all its columns changed to "text" type in Excel before importing.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
MarcelBeug
Community Champion
Community Champion

When I try and do the same, this is the result after the second step of the query (similar to what you posted), including leading zeroes:

 

Excel text type.png 

 

First at the Changed Type step, the column types are changed to numbers, which can easily be adjusted:

 

Excel text type adjusted.png

 

So if your leading zeroes are already gone at the Navigation step, it looks like something may be wrong in Excel.

Specializing in Power Query Formula Language (M)

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1
MarcelBeug
Community Champion
Community Champion

When I try and do the same, this is the result after the second step of the query (similar to what you posted), including leading zeroes:

 

Excel text type.png 

 

First at the Changed Type step, the column types are changed to numbers, which can easily be adjusted:

 

Excel text type adjusted.png

 

So if your leading zeroes are already gone at the Navigation step, it looks like something may be wrong in Excel.

Specializing in Power Query Formula Language (M)

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