Power Query Essentials: Import, Filter, and Clean Data teaches you how to prepare raw data for Excel and Power BI without writing formulas. You will gain a clear, repeatable process for turning messy files into datasets you can trust. Many spreadsheets arrive with inconsistent headers, blank rows, duplicate entries, or numbers stored as text. Fixing these by hand takes time and invites mistakes, especially when a report needs to be updated each month. The course starts here, showing why a structured cleaning process matters before analysis begins.
You learn how to connect to sources such as CSV files, PDFs, and Excel workbooks, then filter rows and columns down to what matters. The Applied Steps pane records every change, so you can rename, reorder, or remove a step without having to redo the query. You also set data types, split and merge columns, and fix inconsistent entries with tools like Fill Down and Replace Values. Picture a monthly sales file with mismatched region names and missing dates. You learn how to fill the gaps, standardise the text, and split a combined name column into first and last names. Learn how to pull a PDF report into a clean table, ready to merge with other sources. Each scenario mirrors a fix you meet in a real job.
By the end, you will have been taught the skills to import data from almost any source, clean it with confidence, and load it into Excel or Power BI as a finished table. This course suits analysts, report builders, and anyone who spends too much time wrestling with spreadsheets before real work starts.
