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Reordering columns in the Data view

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J Rough on 24 Jun 2019 10:12:08

I have yet to work on a report in which the columns in my dataset are not arranged in a strange, illogical order, with my most-used columns lost somewhere in the middle, and groups of logically-related columns spread out over the table.

The Query Editor already allows for this, but calculated columns and tables are not available in the Query Editor view. As a result, I spend too much time trying to plan the order I will create calculated columns so that I will be able to easily access them later.

If there were an easy way to move columns around in the Data view, either by simply dragging (as in query editor) or by highlighting and shift-dragging (as with Excel tables), then this would save a lot of time and headaches due to searching left and right to find a column.

Comments (7)
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Yashasvi Patel on 27 Aug 2024 18:57:15

RE: Reordering columns in the Data view

Highly disappointed to see such basic functionality missing.

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Rachelle McCord on 21 Aug 2024 19:30:17

RE: Reordering columns in the Data view

This is a highly necessary basic need. As my report has grown and I've had to add calculated columns, there are fields that need to be grouped together but cannot. This if very frustrating.

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menachem kalmenson on 18 Aug 2024 10:21:01

RE: Reordering columns in the Data view

As a power BI user I'm honestly kind of embarrassed that this is still not taken care of.

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Jared Kehler on 18 Jul 2024 16:03:59

RE: Reordering columns in the Data view

Such a base functionality, amazed at the oversight to not add it in.

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Dan Smith on 21 Feb 2024 09:36:14

RE: Reordering columns in the Data view

I have been playing around with Power BI for about 30 mins to evaluate if it's a good fit for our use case. This is so basic that I have pretty much ruled it out already. I should probably continue for a bit but this is so shockingly basic a flaw that my first instinct is to throw the whole thing in the bin already. At this point Crystal reports c1995 looks a better product.

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Steven Fanner on 01 Dec 2023 12:52:49

RE: Reordering columns in the Data view

This is still needed in 2023/24. Unless you have pre-planned every calculated column that you want to add, you cannot always group together the various permutations of columns that belong next to each other, making it more difficult to check that you've created all the required columns, or be able to navigate to them.

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Frank on 06 Jul 2020 00:03:08

RE: Reordering columns in the Data view

shocked that this does not have more votes - such a nightmare