How to Duplicate Column using Power Query in Power BI

Recently, while setting up a reporting dashboard for an organization, I had to work with some data that wasn’t fully clean. One of the tables had repeated values, and before using it in visuals, I needed to clean and prepare it properly.

To do that, I first created a duplicate column so I could apply some transformations without affecting the original data. After that, I also needed to remove duplicate values from another column to make sure the report showed correct and unique information.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to do both tasks using the Power Query Editor in Power BI. You will learn:

• How to remove duplicate values from a column
• How to duplicate a column in Power Query

Add a Duplicate Column in Power Query

In this example, I am using a Products table to show how to create a duplicate copy of a column in Power Query.

To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and load your table. Then go to the Home tab and click Transform data to open the Power Query Editor.

2.  Once you are in Power Query, please select the column you want to duplicate, right-click on it, and choose Duplicate Column. In this example, I duplicated the Index column.

After this, you will see a new column named Index – Copy created as an exact duplicate of the original column. Finally, click Close & Apply to load the changes back into Power BI.

This is how you can easily duplicate a column using the Power Query Editor.

Remove Duplicates Column values using Power Query

Now let’s see how to remove duplicate values from a column in Power Query.

1. Open Power BI Desktop, click Transform data, and go to the Power Query Editor.
2. Select the column from which you want to remove duplicate values. Right-click the column and choose Remove Duplicates.

After this step, all duplicate values in the selected column will be removed, leaving only unique values. Click Close & Apply to save the changes.

This is how to remove duplicate values from a column using the Power Query editor in Power BI.

In this tutorial, I covered how to add a duplicate column using the Power Query Editor in Power BI. I also explained how to remove duplicate values from a column using the Power Query Editor.

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