Data rarely comes in a ready-to-use format. In Power BI, the Power Query Editor provides a robust set of transformation tools tailored for different data types—whether it's numbers, text, or dates. Understanding how to clean and shape these columns is key to ensuring accurate analysis and reporting. This blog walks you through the essential transformations you can apply to numerical, text, and date columns for smarter data preparation.

Core Section: Transforming by Data Type

1. Numerical Column Transformations
Power Query lets you perform common mathematical operations and adjustments on numerical data. You can
round values, calculate standard deviations, or apply percentage changes. These transformations help
standardize inconsistent numeric formats and prepare data for meaningful comparisons or aggregations.

2. Text Column Transformations
Text transformations allow you to clean and format strings. From changing the case (uppercase/lowercase) to splitting columns by delimiters or extracting specific portions of text, these tools make it easy to structure unorganized text fields—like names, codes, or descriptions—into a usable form.

3. Date and Time Column Transformations
Date-related transformations include extracting year, month, day, or even the weekday from a date. You can also calculate time differences, shift dates forward or backward, and group data by periods. These
adjustments are vital when working with time-based reports, trend analyses, or calendar-based comparisons. Each of these transformations ensures that the data type behaves appropriately in visualizations, calculations, and filters—bringing structure to otherwise inconsistent data.

Effective data modeling starts with clean, well-structured columns. By applying the right transformations based on data types—numerical, text, or date—you prepare your dataset for deeper insights and smoother visualizations. Power Query Editor’s built-in tools make this process fast, flexible, and user-friendly. Keep refining your data with these targeted transformations to bring out the best in your Power BI reports.