From the course: Excel Power Tools for FP&A: Power Query and PowerPivot

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Automating recurring tasks with applied steps

Automating recurring tasks with applied steps

From the course: Excel Power Tools for FP&A: Power Query and PowerPivot

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Automating recurring tasks with applied steps

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- [Carl] When we bring data into Power Query, one of the first steps we tend to focus on is cleaning and shaping it, but there's a second equally important goal, automation. Instead of performing the same steps over and over again each time that the data arrives, Power Query lets us create and reuse transformations. Let's walk through four core techniques that bring this to life. I'm over here on my Add Column ribbon and I'm going to bring you over here to Column From Examples. Let's say that you want to extract a simplified product name from the Product column right here. The item might read, mineral water, peach, 12 cases, and you only want it to say mineral water. Well, with Column From Example, you don't need to write any crazy formulas in Excel, like left, right, mid, trim, clean, you just have to show Power Query what output you want. Let's go over here and select Column From Examples. When I select the column, take a look at what happens up above, it says, Add Column From…

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