From table to 2 column in Excel - excel

Question

I would like to create two columns from a table.
The correct solution will be this (this will be to 2 separate columns):
From this table:
The table is much longer than this, this is an example.
Can you help me to solve this?
Thanks,
Gergo

Answer 1

To load your existing data into PQ, it needs to be a table. To make this easy, I would convert it to a table and have "My table has headers" unchecked. Then put some labels on your identifier rows so we can easily convert them. It looked like this after I did it.
Then load your table into PQ with the "From Table" option. It will probably try to set types and promote headers by default, which isn't helpful, so delete those steps. It should look like this.
To be able to map your multiple row headers, we'll need to do some pivot transforms. Make a reference to the table we just imported.
Keep the first 3 rows, select the first column and "Unpivot Other Columns". Then select the first column again and "Pivot Columns". Select the "Value" column as your "Values Column" and under the "Advanced options" select "Don't Aggregate".
After this pivot you'll now have a table that maps all of your columns to their header rows. I converted the column with the numbers to text since we'll be appending it as text later on. The result table looks like this:
The full code for this query was:
let
Source = Table1,
#"Kept First Rows" = Table.FirstN(Source,3),
#"Unpivoted Other Columns" = Table.UnpivotOtherColumns(#"Kept First Rows", {"Column1"}, "Attribute", "Value"),
#"Pivoted Column" = Table.Pivot(#"Unpivoted Other Columns", List.Distinct(#"Unpivoted Other Columns"[Column1]), "Column1", "Value"),
#"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Pivoted Column",{{"Region", type text}})
in
#"Changed Type"
Then go back and make another reference to your imported table. This time remove the top 3 rows, select the first column and Unpivot Other Columns. You'll get a list of your dates with all the other columns of data unpivoted next to them. Now you can Merge Queries by matching the Attribute columns from this table and the table where you mapped out your header rows.
Expand the merged data and now you have your header rows mapped to every line of data in your table. You can add a custom column that creates the unique ID column you wanted, then remove and move around the columns to get the result data you want. The custom column code looked like this for me:
[Country Code]&"_"&DateTime.ToText([Column1], "MM/dd/yyyy")&"_"&[Region]
And this was the result table:
The full M code for this part was:
let
Source = Table1,
#"Removed Top Rows" = Table.Skip(Source,3),
#"Unpivoted Other Columns" = Table.UnpivotOtherColumns(#"Removed Top Rows", {"Column1"}, "Attribute", "Value"),
#"Merged Queries" = Table.NestedJoin(#"Unpivoted Other Columns",{"Attribute"},RowIDs,{"Attribute"},"RowIDs",JoinKind.LeftOuter),
#"Expanded RowIDs" = Table.ExpandTableColumn(#"Merged Queries", "RowIDs", {"Country Code", "Country", "Region"}, {"Country Code", "Country", "Region"}),
#"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Expanded RowIDs", "ID", each [Country Code]&"_"&DateTime.ToText([Column1], "MM/dd/yyyy")&"_"&[Region]),
#"Removed Other Columns" = Table.SelectColumns(#"Added Custom",{"Value", "ID"}),
#"Reordered Columns" = Table.ReorderColumns(#"Removed Other Columns",{"ID", "Value"})
in
#"Reordered Columns"

Answer 2

You can use the unpivot function of Power Query to achieve this. Below instruction might at first seem long and difficult but it takes no more than one minute when you get the logic.
At first, arrange your headers into just one row. I think the country name can be omitted. So create a new header row as Row:4 and concatenate country code and integer with a such formula in B4 and copy right:
=B1&B3
Now copy 4th row and paste onto the same row as Values Only. The you may delete rows 1-3 and left with just one row as the header. Now you should have AT32 in B1, AT38 in C1 etc.
Now get your data into Power Query. When a non-blank cell is selected in your table, go to Data Ribbon, press From Table/Range button. Now your data is in Power Query.
Select columns with numeric values in it, not the dates and press Transform / Unpivot Columns / Unpivot Columns button. This will get your data into the requested format.
You may now get your sorted & pivoted data back to Excel using Home / Close & Load button.
To get all country and date information into cell, create a new column and use a formula like below:
= LEFT(B2,2) & "_" & TEXT(A2, "dd/mm/yyyy") & "_" & RIGHT(B2, 2)