Dataflow Reference has different schema

Power Query
1

I am working with Dataflows for the first time in a while, and encountered a strange behavior I can’t explain.

When using the Query Editor, “Reference” is supposed to take the result of the referenced query, after all the transforms are done, right?

When Query B references Query A, I expect both to have exactly the same schema/columns/types. That isn’t what’s happening.

Here’s Query B:
let
Source = #“Query A”
in
Source

Query B has the schema of Query A after like 5 steps were applied.
image

What’s going on? I’ve tried refreshing the entities, but didn’t help. Why would “Reference” ever end up with a different schema?

I’m missing transforms 6 - 50, which merge in other queries and add columns. Those columns are present in the result of Query A but missing entirely from Query B.

This link indicates that every step of Query A should be encapsulated in Query B. That’s also the behavior I’ve seen in the past. However, in this case Query B is not encapsulating the entire set of applied steps, else the schema would be the same…

2

Hi @CStaich,

I reference other queries in Dataflows as well - never had any issues - but for all referenced queries “enable load” has been disabled.

  • Is that also true in your case for Query A?
  • Are your dataflows designed in a Classic- or New Workspace?

Something to read:

.
However if you are on a Premium subscription, you might want to look into:

1 Like
3

Both queries are within the same Dataflow. Query A has load disabled, otherwise I would have a computed entity.

I use New Workspaces.

This is very strange indeed… I have used Reference many times in the past. For some reason, this time it doesn’t seem to be applying the steps appropriately.

I decided to combine Query A and Query B into one single query, which seems to resolve the problem, though it’s not how I wanted to structure this work.

I have a third Query C which also needed to reference Query A, so now I have duplicate Query A code in Query B’ and C’ rather than two queries referencing the same staging query A. Ah well… this works, though it isn’t 100% ideal.

4

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