Power Query M Language Basics

About Power Query M Language Basics

Most courses covering power query focus on navigating menus in the graphical user interface and recording steps by pushing the available buttons. Although that is a quick way to get started in power query, knowing the fundamentals that will be covered in this course will help you better understand what those functions are doing and how they work, and then you will be able to create and modify the code in the queries to be more powerful and efficient than what could otherwise be achieved.

Throughout this course the following topics will be covered

M language 101

Lists

Records

Tables

each _ and the Lambda function using =>

if then else expressions

try otherwise expressions

let expressions

M Language 101 Topics:

Background

General Orientation

Delimiters and Operators

Primitive values

Case Sensitivity

Zero-based Index

Spaces and line breaks

Misc. Tips and Tricks

Lists in M Language Topics

How Used in Power Query

Syntax

Lists of Lists

Combining Lists

Getting Data from Lists

Sample List Functions

Referencing Lists from Other Query Steps

Records in M Language Topics

How Used in Power Query

Syntax

Lists of Records

Combining Records

Getting Data from Records

Sample Record Functions

Tables in M Language Topics

How Used in Power Query

Syntax (#table, TableFromColumns, TableFromRows, TableFromRecords)

Combining Tables

Getting Data from Tables

Sample Table Functions

Blank Table Syntax

each _ and (x) =˃ (lambda function)

Lambda Functions using =>

each _ vs (x)=> x

each _ Used in TableAddColumn

each _ Used in TableGroup

each _ Used in TableGroup

each _ Used in TableTransformColumns

each _ Used in TablePivot

each without _

Direct Argument Notation

if then else try otherwise

let expressions