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Disable Step (Comment Out) within GUI

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Greg on 28 Apr 2017 01:42:45

It would be very helpful if there was an option to right click on a step from within the Power Query GUI and "disable" it (which behind the scenes would really just comment out that line and change the next line's table references automatically).

The reason it is helpful is if I am wanting to test how deleting a step would affect the query, I have no way to do it except either proceeding with the delete (and remember there is no undo option) or manually going into the edit, commenting it out, and changing the reference).

Comments (3)
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Jeffery Decker on 15 Nov 2023 18:29:07

RE: Disable Step (Comment Out) within GUI

Oh yes, and further, the GUI should preserve all comments and white space choices. How absurd to have comment and formatting that I chose for readability purposes just wiped out. Documentation should be considered a much higher priority, including indent and spacing choices, especially in a language with such long statements. Thank you.

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Jeffery Decker on 15 Nov 2023 18:25:43

RE: Disable Step (Comment Out) within GUI

Vital suggestion, and this idea is suggested many, many times. The votes should be combined.

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Ben Sacherich on 07 Jul 2022 14:27:02

RE: Disable Step (Comment Out) within GUI

I agree with this feature request and am surprised it doesn't exist already. Here's my similar write up of the request:When using the Power Query editor I would like to see an additional option in the Steps right-click menu to allow me to Comment or Uncomment a step. When debugging I often create filters and I'd like to be able to easily turn them on or off. Commenting a step would use the same logic as your Delete command by updating any referencing steps to refer to the step above, but instead of removing the step it would prefix it with //.   You could make the prefix include another character like "//!" so it could discern between commented steps and regular comments. Commented steps with the special prefix could still show in the Steps panel but with distinct formatting (green font, italics, etc.). The developer could right-click on a commented step to restore it.  The assumption would have to be that any references to the step above would now point to the restored step. Vote for this if you think it would save you time troubleshooting your queries.