Error handling

Similar to how Excel and the DAX language have an IFERROR function, Power Query has its own syntax to test and catch errors.

As mentioned in the article on dealing with errors in Power Query, errors can appear either at the step or cell level. This article focuses on how you can catch and manage errors based on your own specific logic.

Note

To demonstrate this concept, this article uses an Excel Workbook as its data source. The concepts showcased here apply to all values in Power Query and not only the ones coming from an Excel Workbook.

The sample data source for this demonstration is an Excel Workbook with the following table.

This table from an Excel Workbook has Excel errors such as #NULL!, #REF!, and #DIV/0! in the Standard Rate column. When you import this table into the Power Query editor, the following image shows how it looks.

Notice how the errors from the Excel workbook are shown with the [Error] value in each of the cells.

In this article, you learn how to replace an error with another value. In addition, you also learn how to catch an error and use it for your own specific logic.

Provide an alternative value when finding errors

In this case, the goal is to create a new Final Rate column in the sample data source that uses the values from the Standard Rate column. If there are any errors, then it uses the value from the corresponding Special Rate column.

To create a new custom column, go to the Add column menu and select Custom column. In the Custom column window, enter the formula try [Standard Rate] otherwise [Special Rate]. Name this new column Final Rate.

This formula tries to evaluate the Standard Rate column and outputs its value if no errors are found. If errors are found in the Standard Rate column, then the output is the value defined after the otherwise statement, which in this case is the Special Rate column.

After you add the correct data types to all columns in the table, the following image shows how the final table looks.

Note

As an alternative approach, you can also enter the formula try [Standard Rate] catch ()=> [Special Rate], which is equivalent to the previous formula, but using the catch keyword with a function that requires no parameters.

The catch keyword was introduced to Power Query in May of 2022.

Provide your own conditional error logic

Using the same sample data source as the previous section, the new goal is to create a new column for the Final Rate. If the value from the Standard Rate exists, then that value is used. Otherwise the value from the Special Rate column is used, except for the rows with any #REF! error.

Note

The sole purpose of excluding the #REF! error is for demonstration purposes. With the concepts showcased in this article, you can target any fields of your choice from the error record.

When you select any of the whitespace next to the error value, you get the details pane at the bottom of the screen. The details pane contains both the error reason, DataFormat.Error, and the error message, Invalid cell value '#REF!':

You can only select one cell at a time, so you can effectively only examine the error components of one error value at a time. It's at this point you create a new custom column and use the try expression.

Use try with custom logic

To create a new custom column, go to the Add column menu and select Custom column. In the Custom column window, enter the formula try [Standard Rate]. Name this new column All Errors.

The try expression converts values and errors into a record value that indicates whether the try expression handled an error or not, and the proper value or the error record.

You can expand this newly created column with record values and look at the available fields to be expanded by selecting the icon next to the column header.

This operation exposes three new fields:

• All Errors.HasError—displays whether the value from the Standard Rate column had an error or not.
• All Errors.Value—if the value from the Standard Rate column had no error, this column displays the value from the Standard Rate column. For values with errors this field isn't available, and during the expand operation this column has null values.
• All Errors.Error—if the value from the Standard Rate column had an error, this column displays the error record for the value from the Standard Rate column. For values with no errors, this field isn't available, and during the expand operation this column has null values.

For further investigation, you can expand the All Errors.Error column to get the three components of the error record:

• Error reason
• Error message
• Error detail

After doing the expand operation, the All Errors.Error.Message field displays the specific error message that tells you exactly what Excel error each cell has. The error message is derived from the Error Message field of the error record.

Now with each error message in a new column, you can create a new conditional column with the name Final Rate and the following clauses:

• If the value in the All Errors.Errors.Message column equals null, then the output is the value from the Standard Rate column.
• Else, if the value in the All Errors.Errors.Message column doesn't equal Invalid cell value '#REF!'., then the output is the value from the Special Rate column.
• Else, null.

After keeping only the Account, Standard Rate, Special Rate, and Final Rate columns, and adding the correct data type for each column, the following image demonstrates what the final table looks like.

Use try and catch with custom logic

Alternatively, you can also create a new custom column using the try and catch keywords.

try [Standard Rate] catch (r)=> if r[Message] <> "Invalid cell value '#REF!'." then [Special Rate] else null

More resources

• Understanding and working with errors in Power Query
• Add a Custom column in Power Query
• Add a Conditional column in Power Query