Power Query is an extremely useful feature that allows us to:
- connect to different data sources, like text files, Excel files, databases, websites, etc…
- transform the data based on report prerequisites.
- save the data into an Excel table, data model, or simply connect to the data for later loading.
The best part is that if the source data changes, you can update the destination results with a single click; something that is ideal for data that changes frequently.
This is analogous to recording and executing a macro. But unlike a macro, the creation and execution of the back-end code happen automatically.
If you can click buttons, you can create automated Power Query solutions.
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Example #1 Import Spot Prices for Petroleum from a Website to Excel
The first step is to connect to the data source. For this example, we will connect to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The information we need is in a table that is part of the overall webpage.
In the “old days”, we would transfer the information from the website into Excel by highlighting the webpage table and copy/paste the data into Excel.
If you’ve ever done this, you know what a hit-or-miss proposition this can be. It’s the 50/50/90 Rule: if you have a 50/50 chance of winning, you’ll lose 90% of the time.
Even if you were to successfully transfer the information into Excel, the information is not linked to the webpage. When the webpage changes, you will need to recopy/paste (and potentially fix) the updated information.
- Begin by copying the URL from the webpage (assuming you are previewing the page in a browser). If not, you can type it into the next step’s URL prompt.
- Select Data (tab) -> Get & Transform (group) -> From Web.
- In the From Web dialog box, paste the URL into the URL field and click OK.
The Navigator window displays the components of the webpage in the left panel.
If you want to ensure you are on the correct webpage, click the tab labeled Web View to get a preview of the page in a traditional HTML format.
It is unlikely that the listed components on the left will be presented with obvious names as to which item goes to which webpage component. You may need to click from one item to the next, previewing each item in the right-side preview panel, in order to determine which belongs to the desired table.
If the data does not require any further transformations, you can click Load/Load To… to send the data directly to Excel. This will allow you to select the destination of the results data, such as a table on a new or existing worksheet, the Data Model, or create a “Connection Only” to the source data.
- In the Navigator dialog box, select the arrow next to Load and click Load To…
- In the Import Data dialog box, select “Existing worksheet” and point to a cell on your desired destination worksheet (like cell A1 on “Sheet1”).
The result is a table that is connected to a query. The Queries & Connections panel (right) lists all existing queries in this file.
If you hover over a query, an information window will appear giving you the following information:
- a preview of the data
- the number of imported columns
- the last refresh date/time
- how the data was loaded or connected to the Excel file
- the location of the source data
Although the data looks correct, we have some structural issues with the results that will cause problems with further analysis.
The empty cells in the Product column will cause problems when sorting, filtering, charting, or pivoting the data.
We need to make some adjustments to the data.
- Double-click (or right-click and choose Edit) the listed query to activate the Power Query Editor.
We want to fill down the listed products into the lower, empty cells of the Product column.
- In the Power Query Editor, select the Product column and click Transform (tab) -> Any Column (group) -> Fill -> Down.
Nothing happened.
The reason the product names failed to repeat down through the empty cells is that Power Query did not interpret the cells as empty. There may be some artifact from the webpage that exists in the cell that we can’t see.
We will replace all the “fake empty” cells with null values. This should allow the Fill Down operation to work as expected.
- Select the Changed Type step in the Query Settings panel (right).
- Select the Product column and click Transform (tab) -> Any Column (group) -> Replace Values.
- Tell Power Query that you wish to insert this new step into the existing query by clicking Insert.
- In the Replace Values dialog box, leave the “Value To Find” field empty and type “null” (no quotes) in the “Replace With” field. Click OK when finished.
If you select the previously created “Filled Down” step at the bottom of the Query Settings panel you will see the updated results of the query.
- Update the query name to “Spot Prices”.
- Click the top part of the Close & Load button at the far-left of the Home
If we were to graph the data, and the data were to change, we can refresh our graph by clicking Data (tab) -> Queries & Connections (group) -> Refresh All or right-click on the data and select Refresh.
Query Options
There are some controllable options available by selecting Data (tab) -> Queries & Connections (group) -> Refresh All -> Connection Properties…
Some of the more popular options include:
- Refresh the data every N number of minutes
- Refresh the data when opening the file
- Opting for participation during a Refresh All operation
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Example #2 Import Weather Forecast for the Next 10 Days
Imagine you work at the front desk of a popular hotel in Seattle. As a customer service, you wish to supply your guests with a printout of the weather forecast for the next 10 days.
This is something that needs to be printed every day where each successive day looks at its next 10 days.
- We start by searching for a website that can supply a 10-day forecast for Seattle.
- We take the first offer in the search results that takes us to weather.com.
- Now that we have the web link to the 10-day forecast for New York City, we will copy and paste it into a web query in Excel (Data (tab) -> Get & Transform (group) -> From Web).
- Select the table from the left side of the Navigator window.
We can see from the preview that there are some columns towards the right that we are not interested in and the column headers have shifted.
- In the Navigator window, select Transform Data to load the forecast into Power Query.
- Begin editing the data by right-clicking on the header for the “Day” column and select Remove.
- Select the last 3 columns (“Wind”, “Humidity”, and “Column7”) and remove them as well.
- Rename the remaining 3 columns.
- Description -> Day
- High / Low -> Description
- Precip -> High/Low
- Rename the query “SeattleWeather”.
- On the Home tab, select the lower-part of the Close & Load button and click Close & Load To… and select Existing Worksheet from the Import Data dialog box. Click OK when complete.
We now have the weather forecast for the next 10 days.
Each day, we only need right-click the table to refresh the information.
Impressing the Boss
We really like the idea seen on the original weather.com website that displays a raincloud emoji for days that are expecting rain.
To bring a bit of fun to our report, we will have Excel display an umbrella emoji for any day that is forecasting rain or showers.
NOTE: This creative bit of Excel trickery is brought to us by our good friends Frédéric Le Guen and Oz du Soleil. Links to their blog and video detail various uses of this trick can be found at the end of this post.
The first step is to add the umbrella emoji. We will access the built-in Windows emoji library.
- On the keyboard, press the Windows key and the period to display the emoji library.
- Type the word “rain” to filter the emoji library to rain-related emojis.
- Select the umbrella with raindrops.
- Highlight the umbrella emoji in the Formula Bar and press Copy (CTRL-C) then Enter.
- Double-click the “SeattleWeather” query to launch the Power Query Editor.
The next step is to create a new column that adds the umbrella emoji for any row that contains the words “rain” or “shower” in the Description column.
- Select Add Column (tab) -> General (group) -> Conditional Column.
- The name of the new column is “Be Equipped” and the logic is “if the column named ‘Description’ contains the word ‘rain’ then display the umbrella emoji”. (Paste the umbrella emoji into the Output)
- Click the Add Clause button to create a second condition.
- The second description’s logic is “else if the column named ‘Description’ contains the word ‘shower’ then display the umbrella emoji”. (Paste the umbrella emoji into the Output)
- Click OK to add the new conditional column.
- Drag the header for “Be Equipped” so the new column lies between the “Description” and “High/Low” columns.
- Close & Load the updated query back into Excel.
Tomorrow, you only need right-click the table to load the updated 10-day weather forecast.
Interesting Links
Frédéric Le Guen’s blog post on adding emojis to your reports
Oz’s video – Emojis, Excel, Power Query & Dynamic Arrays
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Leila Gharani
I'm a 6x Microsoft MVP with over 15 years of experience implementing and professionals on Management Information Systems of different sizes and nature.
My background is Masters in Economics, Economist, Consultant, Oracle HFM Accounting Systems Expert, SAP BW Project Manager. My passion is teaching, experimenting and sharing. I am also addicted to learning and enjoy taking online courses on a variety of topics.
