Text Combine / Pivot

CAUTION

Please note that initially, I wrote this blog post in German. This translation is for your convenience. Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, there may be translation errors. I apologize for any discrepancies or misunderstandings resulting from the translation. I am grateful for any corrections in the comments or via mail.

Today we are going to talk about data manipulation with Excel.

Main Problem

I have a table with multiple columns

Column 1	Column 2
A	1
A	2
B	3
A	2
B	4

I want to pivot this table, but I don’t want to calculate the sums:

Column 1	Column 2
A	5
B	7

Instead, I want to keep the individual entries:

Column 1	Column 2
A	1; 2; 2
B	3; 4

Data Basis

With only five rows, this task is probably faster to do manually than setting up a pivot table or using Power Query. But what if there is a large amount of data?

For this example, I will download a CSV file containing information on bicycle thefts in Berlin since January 1, 2021 from the Berlin Police website: Fahrraddiebstahl.csv.

At the time of download, the CSV file contains 23,873 rows. Manual editing is no longer feasible.

Preparation

First, I save the file as *.xlsx ab. without making any changes. Then, I select column A and use the “Text to Columns” feature to split the values based on a comma (,).

Split CSV File

For the purpose of this demonstration, I only need three columns. I delete all other columns except for “TATZEIT_ANFANG_DATUM” (crime start date), “TATZEIT_ANFANG_STUNDE” (crime start hour), and “SCHADENSHÖHE” (damage amount).

Next, I convert the data range into a table (CTRL+T).

Data Analysis

In reality, what I am trying to achieve with this table is not very useful. If I wanted to analyze something, I would probably create a pivot table.

For example, you can quickly see at which hour the most damage occurs.

Pivot Table

Some media companies would probably start this blog post with something like: “You would never believe at what time most bicycles are stolen!” Answer: The most common start time is at 6 PM. Of course, this does not account for unreported cases.

Power Query

Now let’s get to the main task. I load the table into Power Query by selecting the table and then choosing From Table/Range under the “Data” menu.

The table will open in the Power Query Editor.

Power Query Editor

Next, I change the data types.

Data Types

= Table.TransformColumnTypes(Quelle,{{"TATZEIT_ANFANG_DATUM", type date}, {"TATZEIT_ANFANG_STUNDE", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADENSHOEHE", Currency.Type}})

Text.Combine

Next, I add a new column where I finally use the Text.Combine function in its regular form.

= Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "TATZEIT_ANFANG", each Text.Combine({Text.From([TATZEIT_ANFANG_DATUM], "en-US"), " ", Text.PadStart(Text.From([TATZEIT_ANFANG_STUNDE], "en-US"), 2, "0"), ":00:00"}), type text)

This combines the date and time into a single column.

Using Text.Combine, I have merged the columns from each row.

Now I can remove the individual columns.

= Table.SelectColumns(#"Added Custom",{"TATZEIT_ANFANG","SCHADENSHOEHE"})

I can now sort the table in ascending order.

= Table.Sort(#"Removed Other Columns",{{"TATZEIT_ANFANG", Order.Ascending}})

Sorted Table

Tabelle Gruppieren

Now I select the first column and click on “Group By”.

Grouping Table

I group by the sum of the damage amount. Then I get the sum as well. But if I want concatenated texts, I change the data type to text and modify the formula from List.Sum to Text.Combine. In this case, a second parameter also needs to be passed.

Finally, I split the content of the column based on this parameter and then load the final table.

In the Advanced Editor, the formula looks like this:

let
    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="Table1"]}[Content],
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"TATZEIT_ANFANG_DATUM", type date}, {"TATZEIT_ANFANG_STUNDE", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADENSHOEHE", Currency.Type}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "TATZEIT_ANFANG", each Text.Combine({Text.From([TATZEIT_ANFANG_DATUM], "en-US"), " ", Text.PadStart(Text.From([TATZEIT_ANFANG_STUNDE], "en-US"), 2, "0"), ":00:00"}), type text),
    #"Changed Type1" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Added Custom",{{"TATZEIT_ANFANG", type datetime}}),
    #"Removed Other Columns" = Table.SelectColumns(#"Changed Type1",{ "TATZEIT_ANFANG","SCHADENSHOEHE"}),
    #"Sorted Rows" = Table.Sort(#"Removed Other Columns",{{"TATZEIT_ANFANG", Order.Ascending}}),
    #"Changed Type2" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Sorted Rows",{{"SCHADENSHOEHE", type text}}),
    #"Grouped Rows" = Table.Group(#"Changed Type2", {"TATZEIT_ANFANG"}, {{"SCHADEN", each Text.Combine([SCHADENSHOEHE],"; "), type text}}),
    #"Sorted Rows1" = Table.Sort(#"Grouped Rows",{{"TATZEIT_ANFANG", Order.Ascending}}),
    #"Split Column by Delimiter" = Table.SplitColumn(#"Sorted Rows1", "SCHADEN", Splitter.SplitTextByDelimiter(";", QuoteStyle.Csv), {"SCHADEN.1", "SCHADEN.2", "SCHADEN.3", "SCHADEN.4", "SCHADEN.5", "SCHADEN.6", "SCHADEN.7"}),
    #"Changed Type3" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Split Column by Delimiter",{{"SCHADEN.1", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADEN.2", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADEN.3", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADEN.4", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADEN.5", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADEN.6", Int64.Type}, {"SCHADEN.7", Int64.Type}})
in
    #"Changed Type3"

Final Table

In this table, you can see that there are a maximum of seven entries for each hour and how the damage amounts are divided.

If you have any questions, comments, etc., please write them in the comments section.