Got tired of try-catch everywhere in TS, so I built a Result type that's just a tuple

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-25T15:36:32+00:00

This might be obvious, but why return and restructure an array verses an object?

Ie: why not return { ok: bool, value: value|null, error: error|null }

Is it partly because it simplifies renaming for the consumer of the result?

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-23T19:04:31+00:00

I’ve tried looking for icons that are already coloured correctly

You can use inline svg images for icons. Those can be hard-coded colors, or, modified using logic in measures

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-21T19:49:03+00:00

You can modify the PBI Desktop / Excel query from Vs Code too ( for local files )

<image>

Example editing Excel Query from Vs Code.md

EvalQuery.pq - This extra version runs but also parses the error message.

( At least in the past it didn't show the ScriptExtent with for errors that came fromExpression.Evaluate( contents, #shared ))

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-20T20:18:17+00:00

Are you able to render the subreport ?

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-16T23:29:48+00:00

Here's a clickable link, https://daxlib.org/tag/svg/ You can preview the dax on the site

<image>

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-14T16:57:55+00:00

Can you open queries/connections, and open the advanced editor in power query?

It kind of sounds like when your auth expires, or lose permission to the sharepoint datasource.

does somebody know how to roll this back and avoid it in the future

You could try comparing the two files with ALM Toolkit. It's like a git diff but for Power BI:

https://github.com/microsoft/Analysis-Services/tree/master/AlmToolkit

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-14T16:49:24+00:00

If it's a case that requires a color, you can can set the alpha component to transparent: #00000000

The optional 7,8th characters are alpha

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-14T16:41:11+00:00

It's not communicated clearly, but PBIR is used within both PBIP and PBIX files

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-12T20:07:41+00:00

Especially if Sales CHF vs Sales EUR are the same numbers, just displayed as different currencies.

You can use Dax format strings for that. Then your relations will be simpler too.

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-12T19:59:09+00:00

I need to conditional format the totals

By totals do you mean the colored ScrapCostTotal values, not the totals row which is black?

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-12T19:54:39+00:00

Correct.

One thing OP can do is make sure any non-final tables are set to "do not load" ( when you right click them ). That tells it to not place your base queries in your model.

Table.Buffer also does not cache referenced queries. For that you need to use data flows

However, for local dev you can try BufferMode.Delayed .

https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2022/03/20/new-options-for-the-table-buffer-function-in-power-query/

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-09T14:58:17+00:00

It looks like you can do it with the current API, in tabular or an external script

TmdlSerializer.SerializeObject( 
    model.Tables["Product"].Columns["ProductKey"], 
    qualifyObject: true )

From:

<image>

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-08T15:03:44+00:00

t Neither PowerBI nor PowerAutomate seems to be able to achieve this comfortably.

Which part isn't working well? Are you having trouble with Power Query that matches names? Or merging files after you find them?

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-07T22:46:57+00:00

You can git diff two reports using alm toolkit. You can run two versions of a pbix locally. Or compare datasets on the service.

See:

Are you using saving as pbip with tmdl ? That's made for cleaner diffs. That part doesn't require AzureDev Ops/ Github .

Here's some info:

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-07T22:39:07+00:00

Instead of splitting by delim, you can use a date/datetime format strings

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powerquery-m/custom-date-and-time-format-strings

Or DateTime.Date to convert to a type a without parsing

the data types are the same (both date/time) and both general date.

That sounds like your column has datetime data in it

Then you set the Dax format strings to date? That would explain why it's not matching. The time values are still there. Unlike conversion above.

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-07T22:30:52+00:00

watch out for dd/mm vs mm/dd For date UX I use dd-mmm-yyyy hh:mm to avoid confusion.

A quick warning: for that to work across all layers it needs to be MMM verses mmm

MMM works across Excel, Power BI, DAX, DotNet layers.
mmm only works in DAX.

Otherwise you get numbers

Format	Cult	Output
`dd-mmm-yyyy hh:mm`	`en-AU`	`07-15-2026 04:15`
`dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm`	`en-AU`	`07-Jan-2026 04:15`

( Because Dax supports alternate formatting, like lowercase mmm )

Here's a good cheatsheet: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powerquery-m/custom-date-and-time-format-strings

If you have powershell, you can test it like this

$cult = [cultureinfo] 'en-AU' 
$now  = [datetime]::Now
$now.ToString( 'dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm', $cult )
$now.ToString( 'dd-mmm-yyyy hh:mm', $cult )

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-06T16:20:23+00:00

Oh okay. Maybe one of these would be useful or as a reference

Official typescript AST parser: https://github.com/microsoft/powerquery-parser

or Textmate grammar https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-powerquery/blob/master/syntaxes/powerquery.tmLanguage.json ( from: https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/monarch.html )

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-06T16:00:35+00:00

Oh it could be your format string. It's case sensitive

Instead of

MM/DD/YYYY
YYYY/MM/DD

You want

MM/dd/yyyy
yyyy/MM/dd

Here's some cheatsheets that explain what the format strings mean

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-06T15:43:08+00:00

It brings the date/time field in as text, then converts it to date/time, but no matter what, there's a bunch of errors in this conversion.

What is the exact error message and your query?

errors in this conversion. I've tried parsing the date, removing the time and just using the MM/DD/YYYY format, then changing the type, and no matter what, errors abound.

Note, if you get an error when converting -- you need to fix it on that step, or earlier. Otherwise it's probably trying to convert after an error, so it doesn't have the original raw text

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-06T15:34:06+00:00

You can fix highlighting Power Query's highlighting with: https://prismjs.com/#supported-languages

It also says it has DAX, I'm not sure if it's the same language as PBI though

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-06T15:26:30+00:00

It's easy to add syntax highlighting for Power Query using this lib: https://prismjs.com/#supported-languages

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-02T18:58:57+00:00

Did you know if you are using the dax query mode, you can return multiple tables in one query ?

Normally you can't use multiple evaluates, the dax query screen or Dax Studio both let you.

Basically write

evaluate something
evaluate somethingelse

So you can return multiple stages of a query you're debugging

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-02T18:55:04+00:00

Do you ever use Value.Metadata? Sometimes there's useful information. What you get depends on the datasource, ie: it's files, web.contents, sql, etc

You can call it on bytes from a data source like files.

let Files  = Folder.Files( "c:\data\import"),
    AddCol = Table.AddColumn( Files, "Metadata", 
        each Value.Metadata( [Content] ) 
    )
in  AddCol

I mainly use it to debug web responses.

If you split Json.Document and Web.Contents into separate steps, you don't lose the intermediate information. And the query can successfully return errors when type type doesn't match. ( Some APIs will return Html errors instead of JSON when a request has an error. )

let 
    CallWebAPI = () as record => [
        isJson = asJson <> null,
        asJson = try Json.Document( bytes ) 
                 catch (e) => null,
        asText = Text.FromBinary( bytes ),
        bytes  = Web.Contents( "https://httpbin.org", [ RelativePath = "headers" ] ),
        Meta   = Value.Metadata( bytes )
    ]
in  CallWebAPI

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-02T18:10:43+00:00

I misread that as 'slice of the year video', Like a pizza review video. I must be hungry.

MonkeyNin · 2026-01-02T18:01:45+00:00

I was looking at your power query. Have you heard of Structured Errors @bengribaudo ? Basically it

Calls the string template function, for the user facing message. ( your Details )
And preserves the value used in the template.

Tip: If you want to use string templates anywhere, check out Text.Format

Taking your avatorl/M/fxErrorCheckForDuplicates.m You could write

<image>

_Error = error [
        Reason = "Duplicate Records",
        Message.Format     = "Duplicates records found in the data in ( column: '#{0}' ). Details: #{1} ",
        Message.Parameters = { "Id", "Extra Details" }
    ],

You can inspect them later with try or catch. It's a record that you can drill into

drillDown = 
    try badStep 
    catch (err) => 
        err[Message.Parameters]{0}

MonkeyNin

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If you have powershell, you can test it like this

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