Understand a Power Query query
A Power Query query fetches data from elsewhere and transforms it through a chain of steps, in a language (M) that few people read. You drop the workbook, or paste the M code, and each step is said in one sentence, in order.
What this tool does
- The source, in plain words: the file, folder, website or database the query pulls its data from.
- Numbered steps: keep some rows, remove columns, group, merge with another query, each in one sentence.
- The pitfalls to know: a source that refreshes on its own, credentials kept per machine, data as old as the last refresh.
- Two inputs: drop the workbook, and the tool lists its queries; or paste a query's M code (Excel's Advanced Editor).
- Nothing leaves: the workbook is read in the tab, as everywhere on Klargrid.
What it does not do: The tool explains a query, it does not run it or change it. A rare transformation, written by hand in the M code, gets a generic sentence with the function's name.
No file is uploaded. Turn off your network once this page has loaded: the tool keeps working. How to check it yourself.
Other tools
- Workbook health check : Size, phantom rows, styles, links, errors, hidden content: all of it, with one-click fixes.
- Clean before sending : Author, comments, hidden sheets, macros: what travels with the file without showing.
- Inspect a workbook : Hidden sheets, author, comments, links: what the file carries without showing it.
- Formula audit : Errors, hard-coded values, formulas that stand out: what to check in a model.
- Dependency map : Which sheet reads which, which workbooks are called: the workbook's diagram.