Power Query is a data import feature in Excel that lets you quickly connect to multiple data sources, transform your data, and get your results into a worksheet ready to use.

Power Query also makes it easy to share your data transformation processes with others.

Over time, Power Query’s data connection options have expanded to include many data providers from around the web, including Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, and Google.

In this blog, we’ll introduce you to Power Query, what it can do for you, and why it’s one of the most powerful features ever introduced into Excel. So let us discuss what is excel power query.

Power Query

Microsoft Excel’s Power Query add-in is a tool that allows one to effectively take in data from various sources, and then easily sort it into an Excel sheet in the most convenient and usable format.

While eliminating the need to execute the same filtering techniques when working with different files from different sources at different points in time.

One only needs to set up a query, which are rules for sorting information, once, and refresh this same query every time the action is supposed to be repeated.

Power Query is a useful tool to quickly build a library of frequently-used data. This can be done more easily without needing to write any code whatsoever.

Available on Microsoft Excel 2010 and 2013 as a free add-in, this feature is fully integrated with Microsoft Excel 2016.

Importing data into an Excel file

Let’s take a look at import data. Before you start importing anything into your app, let’s just walk through what it feels like to bring data into Microsoft Excel.

Every time you change the sheet that is being viewed in Excel, the location for where new data is being placed is highlighted.

• Go to the Data tab and choose Get Data in the Get & Transform Data section. Then select From File and press From Workbook on the drop-down option menu. A file picker box will appear where you can navigate to your desired document. You can then edit or delete columns of data, by double-clicking on each of them to open the Edit Columns Command dialog box, where you can then change their name, type (numeric, date, time), data direction (whether it is displayed as positive or negative), and whether they are hidden (for example, if you don’t want to incorporate any sensitive client or company information.

• After selecting the file you’d like to open, double click on the file you chose in order to import it into the Navigator window.
• Next, check the box that’s located at the top right-hand side of the said window that reads, “Select multiple items”. This way, we can import data from multiple spreadsheets. We’re going to be importing data from customer information located on Sheet1 and sales information which is available in Sales Data sheet2 within our selected spreadsheet.
• From here, when you click either of these files in Microsoft Excel, they will appear down in the lower right-hand side part of your screen.
• Now all you have to do is inspect what appears there for a quick peek so you can verify whether or not your selected files are correct.

Different uses of power query

Power Query tool has the advantage of greater efficiency. Excel itself is a useful and efficient tool for data formatting and analysis; using Excel with Power Query brings the user results faster.

Users should keep in mind that while all advantages should be noted, this one stands out particularly because of its great importance.

Connection to Various Data Sources

Power Query is a mode of functionality in Excel, which was created to make data processing easier.

In essence, it is a program used for importing and formatting information from certain platforms in a way that is similar to previous operations when Query is implemented.

This eliminates the need for repetitive operations when organizing similar information from different sources.

Combining tables

When new and updated files need to be imported into a system on a regular basis, say once a month or every week, it can be difficult to ensure all of the current data is merged correctly.

Power Query makes it easy to combine different data sets together by simply entering the necessary instructions, such as specifying which imported file has more recent data and letting Excel repeat those changes in batches until they are consistent with each other.

Related Post: How to Combine the First and Last Names In Excel?

Merging Tables

Power Query’s Merge function of MS Excel substitutes the vastly useful but sometimes more difficult and time-consuming VLOOKUP function of MS Excel.

Both MS Excel and Power Query allow you to look up corresponding values, but it can be awkward trying with MS Excel on a large dataset spanning several thousands of rows when using its functions rather than when using the powerful syntax features available in querying tools.

FAQs

What is the difference between Excel and Power Query?

Power BI has numerous benefits over Excel. Power BI dashboards visually captivate the audience by integrating more visual aspects into them.

Users can create up-to-date reports and insights to change the way they compare their information within a matter of minutes, as opposed to manually bringing together data via spreadsheets that would take a lot longer.

A key selling point of Power BI is that it is a versatile tool that goes beyond just Excel in terms of functionality.

It’s much easier for users to present information in innovative ways by taking advantage of the numerous styles available, rather than having to use applications like PowerPoint or Photoshop which are not built for this specific task.

What is the use of Power Query in Excel?

The Power Query tool (previous Excel versions referred to this tool as getting & Transform Data) helps make dealing with business data more convenient and seemingly less complicated.

The tool should prove especially helpful when you deal with large amounts of data. This is because it’s capable of creating huge descriptive reports that provide insights into the type of data gathered via external sources, without forcing you to manually organize that information.

Because all of this can be done electronically, saving time and making your work more efficient is one other great reason to spend some time familiarizing yourself with this nifty piece of software.

Conclusion

Power Query is a fantastic tool available in Microsoft Excel, a feature that allows you to pull data from multiple sources and clean the data ready for modeling purposes.

The Excel Power Query add-in is an awesome tool that allows you to import data from multiple sources (Excel, CSV, web, etc), combine them, clean them up, and make them even more useful.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post on what is Excel Power Query. If you would like to know more information in the future, please tell us in the comment section. I hope that you will understand.

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