Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Earn the coveted Fabric Analytics Engineer certification. 100% off your exam for a limited time only!

Reply
Doni_No
Frequent Visitor

Values change from dataflow service to Power BI Desktop

Hi,

 

I have a couple of dataflows which I link and combine in another dataflow. After saving the dataflow, I can succesfully connect to the dataflow in Power BI Desktop and build my report. For most data points this is not a problem. However, I have at least one data point, where the value of a calculated column changes from the dataflow web view to loading into Power BI Desktop. 

As you can see in the screenshot, I want to check if a value in a column is empty or not. Here I create column "test" and the answer is clearly, that the column "sdmatstkonf.sdhza" is empty.

Doni_No_2-1656945128088.png

 

 

However, after connecting and loading in Power BI Desktop, column "test" says that "sdmatstkonf.hza" is NOT empty, even though "sdmatstkonf.hza" is indeed empty as can be seen in the column quality description.

Doni_No_3-1656945140705.png

 

I am sure that the data points are identical because I filtered the whole data set for this purpose to include only this data point.

This is a serious problem for me because I actually want to calculate the column next to the "test" column: "Echte hza". The calculation for this column follows the same logic. If sdmatstkonf.hza = "" then column x else column y.

 

Does anybody have an idea how this can happen? How can a custom column have different values after loading the dataflow?

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
otravers
Community Champion
Community Champion

Yep, it's inconsistent between cloud and desktop:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Power-BI-Dataflow-with-column-type-text-having-null-value-is...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Power-Query/Loading-dataflow-converts-null-to-empty/m-p/815361

------------------------------------------------
1. How to get your question answered quickly - good questions get good answers!
2. Learning how to fish > being spoon-fed without active thinking.
3. Please accept as a solution posts that resolve your questions.
------------------------------------------------
BI Blog: Datamarts | RLS/OLS | Dev Tools | Languages | Aggregations | XMLA/APIs | Field Parameters | Custom Visuals

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6
nickyvv
Community Champion
Community Champion

I actually had the exact same case with a similar setup. Several dataflows (for Extract and Transform), where a certain column was TRUE, but in PBI Desktop it showed up as FALSE.

I was comparing empty and NULL strings, could it also be the case there's a difference in Power Query online vs. desktop?



Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution!

Blog: nickyvv.com | @NickyvV


It seems to be the case that there's a difference in Power Query online vs. desktop between empty and NULL (or somewhere in the background at least). I was able to "solve" my problem by extending the if statement:

if [sdmatstkonf.hza] = "" or [sdmatstkonf.hza] = null then [matst.hza] else [sdmatstkonf.hza]

Now I get the correct result for my case. The behaviour is still weird, but currently it is not a pressing issue anymore.
If I only ask if [sdmatstkonf.hza] = null, then I miss all the majority cases where [sdmatstkonf.hza] = ""
otravers
Community Champion
Community Champion

Yep, it's inconsistent between cloud and desktop:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Power-BI-Dataflow-with-column-type-text-having-null-value-is...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Power-Query/Loading-dataflow-converts-null-to-empty/m-p/815361

------------------------------------------------
1. How to get your question answered quickly - good questions get good answers!
2. Learning how to fish > being spoon-fed without active thinking.
3. Please accept as a solution posts that resolve your questions.
------------------------------------------------
BI Blog: Datamarts | RLS/OLS | Dev Tools | Languages | Aggregations | XMLA/APIs | Field Parameters | Custom Visuals

Thanks @otravers, I did not find these posts when I searched for my problem. I did not realize it was due to the text format (which is also the format of my columns in question). I guess I can accept that as a solution as it explains the error and a workaround.

 

@v-easonf-msft I would hope Microsoft fixes the issue, but seeing that it is an old issue, I don't have much hope.

v-easonf-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi, @Doni_No 

That's really weird.

Will the same situation occur when creating a new ‘Test’ custom column in the integrated dataflow?

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Eason

Hi @v-easonf-msft

 

thanks for the reply. As described in the answer to @nickyvv, I was able to solve my problem here, even though I did not solve the general behaviour of Power BI or really understand why it happened. I am also a bit unwilling to mark what I did as "solution", as it is more of a workaround I would say.

 

When I created a new test column in the integrated dataflow in Power BI Desktop with the same statement, the result was "sdmatstkonf.hza is empty". So I had two test columns with the exact same statement. The first executed in the dataflow was saying "sdmatstkonf.hza is NOT empty" and the other executed in Power BI Desktop said "sdmatstkonf is empty". 

Helpful resources

Announcements
April AMA free

Microsoft Fabric AMA Livestream

Join us Tuesday, April 09, 9:00 – 10:00 AM PST for a live, expert-led Q&A session on all things Microsoft Fabric!

March Fabric Community Update

Fabric Community Update - March 2024

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric Community.

Top Solution Authors
Top Kudoed Authors