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Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

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Sean on 24 Aug 2015 23:46:03

I'd like to be able to move/rearrange my Calculated Columns in the Data View so they can be placed next to columns where they would be more relevant and make more sense.


It would be nice also if the Calculated Columns are shaded darker as in PowerPivot so we can easily distinguish them.


Also please enable Ctrl+A (Select ALL) in the Data View - currently it works only in the Query Editor.


This way we could Select ALL Data in the Data View where it would include the Calculated Columns.

Comments (90)
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Samuel Arsenault-Brassard on 29 May 2023 18:35:06

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

What is taking so long to implement this?

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Theo C on 28 May 2023 22:27:23

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

Logic should not require votes. The fact that Power BI Desktop depicts a single entity in three completely different orders is illogical. Data Pane represents fields by alphanumeric order (logical).Power Query by user preference (very logical)Data View in order of pftlstheipshiofhsdfsowefcvicanoacew23908h (illogical).The inefficiency caused by the above is not Power Query nor the Data Pane. Rather, it is caused in Data View where many users revert to this view in order to create Calculated Columns and manipulate / transform their data.This update should not be viewed by Microsoft as an "Idea." It should be viewed as conforming with better practice standards.

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Jesus Amezquita on 17 May 2023 16:52:42

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

Still waiting for this

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Kamil Kozioł on 17 Apr 2023 09:30:02

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

Still waiting :)

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Daniel Cassidy on 03 Apr 2023 15:49:26

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

How is this still not done.

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PowerBI Admin on 27 Feb 2023 17:31:48

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

This is one of the few things that Power Pivot does better. Completely ridiculous that I have similar column spread all over the view . On some tables i have bunch of calculated columns first then the data off screen to the right as i changed the power query after writing a bunch of calculated columns. All these fancy new visuals are just irrelevant when you can understand your data structure easily

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Michaela MAIER on 24 Jan 2023 09:48:54

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

@Microsoft please update this! It is extremely annoying and messy when the column order is the same order like you created them.

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Andrew Ashurst on 22 Dec 2022 17:30:51

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

I'm a little confused by those who say that tables should at least load in the order they are arranged to in Power Query, because, for me, that does appear to happen. I would be content, at least as an interim solution, with a situation where the order of the PQ imported columns is fixed (by Power Query) and always at the left, but, where new calculated columns in the modelling layer (of whatever kind) could then be re-arranged as needed within the block to the right of the imported PQ columns. I also support the idea of having some visual cue, as there is in Excel Power Pivot datamodel, showing which are imported columns from PQ and which are being calculated in the model layer.I hope I now find out that this is now possible as a recently introduced feature, but, I guess I won't.

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Andrew Ashurst on 22 Dec 2022 17:23:19

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

There seems to be some confusion about this among some here and in the wild generally. Columns order from Power Query is defined there and is easily changed there before loading the table to the modelling layer. What the problem seems to be is that calculated columns added in the "modelling" layer of power bi cannot be inserted where would make sense but always appear in the furthest right column and then cannot be moved from there. AFAIK there is no easy way to re-group them into a sensible order that makes sense to the modeller (or later perhaps to others who are having to adopt the model or develop it further). There is a solution suggested using the function SELECTCOLUMNS but it seems an unsatisfactory and unnecessary workaround, even if it works, I will look, users need to be able to drag and drop. I annoyed too that what would seem to most to be a basic requirement is taking so long to implement, with, as ever, no dialogue that I know of from MS explaining why this is taking so long or is so difficult.

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Luis Mariano Mingo Anaya on 24 Nov 2022 08:15:02

RE: Moving/Rearranging Calculated Columns

The minimum would be that the order of the columns in the table view was the one imported from powerquery.