Using power query to manage data files with "moving" columns

[Joanne 56]

I get a daily report which has data with some variability in terms of what column any given header may arrive in (i.e. column AAC today is column something else tomorrow). The report comes with six rows of header details so already requires a transpose/merge/transpose activity ... Is there a way within power query to manage this without changing the original report? Thanks for any suggestions ...

 

[horseyride]

Is the problem that (a) the same data can have different column header text each time , or (b) the data and column headers are the same but in different column placement and you need to get the columns to a specific order? If (b) and you know the column names, you can just rearrange them by name using =Table.ReorderColumns(#"previous step",{"Col1", "Col2", "Col3", "ColX"})

 

[Joanne 56]

Thanks. The problem is (b) - different column placement. There are around 1100 columns of data.

 

[macfuller]

I have the same problem though with fewer columns - they can appear in any order.

A workaround for me was unpivoting the columns so that the headers become values of a new column (using Other Columns so you don't have to enumerate the changeable ones). If you need all instances of rows and columns rather than just the ones with data then be sure to set any null values to zero before the unpivot. If you can perform your necessary calculations on the values at that point do so, then you can re-pivot the columns if needed.