Vlookup in Power Query with If statement

[hananak]

Dear All,

I am trying to do a Vlookup with if statement in Power Query but unable to.

in Excel I have done in this way --> =IF(P3="Recruited",VLOOKUP(AA3,'Sheet1'!A:B,2,0),)

Please if you could help me on how to do this in Power Query?

Many Thanks.

 

[alansidman]

In PQ, you should be joining tables to achieve vlookup results. On the Home Tab, look to merge tables.

 

[Misca]

Power Query doesn't understand Excel formulas. You need to solve it using M functions.

I created a small example with two tables:

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E
1	LookupTable			DataTable
2	Lookup Value	Result		Lookup Letter	Condition
3	A	1		F	Whatever
4	B	2		A	Recruited
5	C	3		F	Whatever
6	D	4		D	Whatever
7	E	5		B	Recruited
8	F	6		I	Whatever
9	G	7		I	Whatever
10	H	8		J	Whatever
11	I	9		B	Recruited
12	J	10		J	Whatever
Sheet1

 

[Misca]

Power Query doesn't understand Excel formulas. You need to solve it using M functions.

I created a small example with two tables:

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E
1	LookupTable			DataTable
2	Lookup Value	Result		Lookup Letter	Condition
3	A	1		F	Whatever
4	B	2		A	Recruited
5	C	3		F	Whatever
6	D	4		D	Whatever
7	E	5		B	Recruited
8	F	6		I	Whatever
9	G	7		I	Whatever
10	H	8		J	Whatever
11	I	9		B	Recruited
12	J	10		J	Whatever
Sheet1

The tables are called LookupTable and DataTable and here's a Query that adds the matching value from the LookupTable[Result] if there's "Recruited" on the DataTable[Condition]:

let
    LookupTable= Table.Buffer(Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name= "LookupTable"]}[Content]),
    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name= "DataTable"]}[Content],
       ResultColumn = Table.AddColumn(
                            Source, "Result", 
                            each if [Condition]="Recruited" 
                            then LookupTable[Result]
                                 { List.PositionOf(LookupTable[Lookup Value], [Lookup Letter]) } 
                            else null)
in
    ResultColumn

The LookupTable -step at the beginning of my code is just the LookupTable. I wanted to buffer it in case it's actually a much bigger one than the one in my Example.
The lookup logic of the ResultColumn -step is a bit harder to understand so I'll try to explain it:
LookupTable[Result] is the list we want to return the result value from. The List.PositionOf -function returns the index number from the LookupTable[Lookup Value] -list that matches the contents of the DataTable[Lookup Letter] -field of that row. So basically it's the PowerQuery equivalent of Excel's INDEX/MATCH where the List.PositionOf is doing the MATCH part.

 

[hananak]

Power Query doesn't understand Excel formulas. You need to solve it using M functions.

I created a small example with two tables:

Book1
	A	B	C	D	E
1	LookupTable			DataTable
2	Lookup Value	Result		Lookup Letter	Condition
3	A	1		F	Whatever
4	B	2		A	Recruited
5	C	3		F	Whatever
6	D	4		D	Whatever
7	E	5		B	Recruited
8	F	6		I	Whatever
9	G	7		I	Whatever
10	H	8		J	Whatever
11	I	9		B	Recruited
12	J	10		J	Whatever
Sheet1

The tables are called LookupTable and DataTable and here's a Query that adds the matching value from the LookupTable[Result] if there's "Recruited" on the DataTable[Condition]:

let
    LookupTable= Table.Buffer(Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name= "LookupTable"]}[Content]),
    Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name= "DataTable"]}[Content],
       ResultColumn = Table.AddColumn(
                            Source, "Result",
                            each if [Condition]="Recruited"
                            then LookupTable[Result]
                                 { List.PositionOf(LookupTable[Lookup Value], [Lookup Letter]) }
                            else null)
in
    ResultColumn

The LookupTable -step at the beginning of my code is just the LookupTable. I wanted to buffer it in case it's actually a much bigger one than the one in my Example.
The lookup logic of the ResultColumn -step is a bit harder to understand so I'll try to explain it:
LookupTable[Result] is the list we want to return the result value from. The List.PositionOf -function returns the index number from the LookupTable[Lookup Value] -list that matches the contents of the DataTable[Lookup Letter] -field of that row. So basically it's the PowerQuery equivalent of Excel's INDEX/MATCH where the List.PositionOf is doing the MATCH part.

Hi Misca,

Thank you. The code is working but the only problem is my file is very heavy and each month more and more rows will be added, I ran this query on the original file and it is taking forever and then crashes.

Any advice?

 

[alansidman]

Did you try the method presented in the video link in Post #2?

 

[hananak]

Did you try the method presented in the video link in Post #2?

that is a simple merge. In my case I only want to merge when a criteria is met.

So a combination of IF + Vlookup.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Misca]

Hi Misca,

Thank you. The code is working but the only problem is my file is very heavy and each month more and more rows will be added, I ran this query on the original file and it is taking forever and then crashes.

Any advice?

Try merging the columns. I've never tried conditional merging but use the merge column as a helper column and have the final column pick the value from the helper column only when the condition matches. Or if there's only one condition you need to check you can add a column with the "Recruited" on each row so you can merge the queries using two columns. This way you don't need a helper column:

 

[hananak]

Try merging the columns. I've never tried conditional merging but use the merge column as a helper column and have the final column pick the value from the helper column only when the condition matches. Or if there's only one condition you need to check you can add a column with the "Recruited" on each row so you can merge the queries using two columns. This way you don't need a helper column:

View attachment 113905

Thanks, that worked for me.