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ChemEnger
Advocate IV
Advocate IV

Dynamically evaluate Duration

I would like to dynamically evaluate hours or minutes from durations.  I have successfully used a 'dictionary' table to describe data types in a master data table, e.g.

 

Column NameTypeUnits
Start Datetype date 
Temperaturetype number°C
Pressuretype numberbarg
Long Durationtype durationhours
Short Durationtype durationminutes
Commentstype text 

 

I can then use

#"Added Evalaution" = Table.AddColumn(<Dictionary>, "Evaluate", each Expression.Evaluate(Record.Field(_, "Type")))

and

#"List of Transforms" = Table.ToRows(#"Added Evaluation")

to generate a list that can then be passed to

#"Changed Types" = Table.TransformColumns(<Master>, #"List of Transforms")

This will dynamically change the column types based on the 'Type' column in the dictionary.

 

What I would now like to do is dynamically take the 'hours' and 'minutes' from the units column (converted to 'Duration.TotalHours' and 'Duration.TotalMinutes' as strings) and use them as a transform function.  I have tried

 

#"Added Duration Evaluation" = Table.AddColumn(#"Previous Step", "Duration", each Expression.Evaluate(Record.Field(_, "Units")))
z

But I get the error "Expression.Error: [1,1-1,20] The name 'Duration.TotalHours' doesn't exist in the current context".

 

Specifically, I need this to run in the service, not desktop, and I want to chart the numbers with human-readable values so I can't just use duration data types.

 

Edit 1: I know I can brute force it by multiplying my duration (which is essentially a fraction of a day) by either 24 for hours or 24*60 for minutes but I think I'd have to stuff this in a loop of columns and it's not very elegant

 

Edit 2: Not perfect but I have taken the approach described in Power Query: Data Transformation of Dynamic Columns

// Transform those columns flagged as hours to Duration.TotalHours
Hours = Table.TransformColumns (
#"Changed Types",
List.Transform (
Table.SelectRows(<dictionary>, each [Units] = "hours")[Column Name],
each {_, Duration.TotalHours, type number}
)
)

And of course, the same for [Units] = "minutes" to Duration.TotalMinutes

1 REPLY 1
lbendlin
Super User
Super User

But I get the error "Expression.Error: [1,1-1,20] The name 'Duration.TotalHours' doesn't exist in the current context".

 

Add it to the context as requested.  There is an additional parameter to Expression.Evaluate().

 

Expression.Evaluate(Record.Field(_, "Units",[Duration.TotalHours=Duration.TotalHours])

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