Part V: Understanding Power Pivot and Power Query
FIGURE 40.13
Activating the Merge dialog box
Figure 40.14 illustrates the Merge dialog box. The idea here is to use the drop-
down boxes to select the queries you want to merge and then choose the columns
that define the unique identifier for each record. In this case, the InterviewID and
QuestionID/AnswerID fields make up the unique identifier for each record.
- Select the Questions query in the top drop-down box.
- Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and then click InterviewID and
QuestionID—in that order.
- Select the Answers query in the lower drop-down box.
- Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and then click InterviewID and
AnswerID—in that order.
- Use the Join Kind drop-down box to select the kind of join that you want
Power Query to use. In this case, the default Left Outer works.
- Click the OK button to finalize and open the Power Query Editor.
Note the small numbers 1 and 2 in the InterviewID and QuestionID fields in Figure 40.14. These small numbers are
assigned based on the order in which you selected them (see steps 3 and 5 earlier).
The order you selected the unique identifiers in each query matters. The two columns tagged with the small number
1 will be joined together regardless of column labels. The two columns tagged with the small number 2 will also be
joined together.
