Sorting a dynamic number of columns alphanumerically

[stu-co]

So I've got a Power Query script that at one point pivots a table.

This creates a dynamic number of columns.

One of these columns is text, but will usually have a value at the front such as `1. this is a description`, `2. this is another description` etc, up to `34. this is a description.`

PowerQuery is sorting these columns alphabetically left to right. However, I would like to sort them by number.

As the number of columns is variable, as are the column names, I cannot Reorder by the explicit column names.

I'm a bit stuck here, so any help would do!

[dasg777]

I had almost the same problem sorting my dynamic columns. I have dynamic columns because my source files change based on Dates. Unfortunately, the file columns names are literal Dates, like 27/03/2022, 28/03/2022 etc. And could be different anytime I run the process. (I run a Table.Combine to gather all the files within a path tree)

I tried several things, but the one that worked really well for me was this.

Lets make this example with 10 columns (this number is dynamic, maybe tomorrow could be 20), and 7 out of them have a Date as name, the other 3 columns never change ("Name", "Description" and "Country")

This is what I did. I selected the 3 columns that never change, then perform an "Unpivot other columns". Then I sorted the table over the "Attribute" column (the column wich is generated when you perform the unpivot, as well as the column "value").

Then, after sorting the "Attribute" column, I performed a Pivot on the same column "Attribute". And in the dialog box I selected "Values column" = Value (this column was generated in the Unpivot step), and then clicked on the advanced options to select "Don't aggregate" function.

And that did the trick. This always works even when new columns are added to the files.



 

[stu-co]

So I am getting the following error on List.Zip.

`Expression.Error: The import List.Zip matches no exports. Did you miss a module reference?`

I will be spending some time googling it soon. 

[MarcelBeug]

According to my documentation, List.Zip was added in Power BI Desktop in September 2016.

[Greg_Deckler]

Dynamic numbers of columns is generally bad. Can you post a sample of the source data and what you are transforming it into? @MarcelBeug generally has quite a few tricks or this sort of thing.

[stu-co]

Agreed, but this was requested strongly from the users.

[MarcelBeug]

Do you refer to the remark that numbering columns is bad?

How about your feedback on the other contributions?

[stu-co]

Yes I do, I just assumed that the forum would show other users which post I had hit reply to!

I haven't tested your solution yet, but it looks promising.

[MarcelBeug · Accepted solution]

The code below will numerically sort the columns that have a name with a number before the dot.

I assume there are also columns without number.

let
    Source = Table1,
    ColumnNames = #table(1,List.Zip({Table.ColumnNames(Source)})),
    #"Inserted Text Before Delimiter" = Table.AddColumn(ColumnNames, "Text Before Delimiter", each Text.BeforeDelimiter([Column1], ".", 0), type text),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Inserted Text Before Delimiter",{{"Text Before Delimiter", Int64.Type}}),
    #"Removed Errors" = Table.RemoveRowsWithErrors(#"Changed Type", {"Text Before Delimiter"}),
    #"Sorted Rows" = Table.Sort(#"Removed Errors",{{"Text Before Delimiter", Order.Ascending}}),
    NewColumnOrder = #"Sorted Rows"[Column1],
    ReorderedColumns = Table.ReorderColumns(Source,NewColumnOrder)
in
    ReorderedColumns

[stu-co]

So I've got a Power Query script that at one point pivots a table.

This creates a dynamic number of columns.

One of these columns is text, but will usually have a value at the front such as `1. this is a description`, `2. this is another description` etc, up to `34. this is a description.`

PowerQuery is sorting these columns alphabetically left to right. However, I would like to sort them by number.

As the number of columns is variable, as are the column names, I cannot Reorder by the explicit column names.

I'm a bit stuck here, so any help would do!