LibPQ - detach your M code from workbooks and reuse it!

This project offers a collection of functions and useful queries for Power Query Formula Language (also known as M language) and a loader to import source code from external modules into Power Query.

Feature highlights

Import source code from plain text files located on disk or on the web
Unlimited number of import locations ordered by priority
Unit testing framework
Show docstrings in Power Query user interface
A collection of general purpose functions and queries
Compatibility with @tycho01's library

More information

Introductory overview is available at author's blog along with several other articles on LibPQ
Documentation describes some more specific use cases
Release notes contain important information on latest LibPQ changes
Roadmap describes project vision and plans for the future

What other people say about LibPQ

Roger Torné: Reutilizar funciones en Power Query de Excel (in Spanish)
Twitter highlights: Jay Killeen, Maxim Zelensky

Installation and usage

Copy source code to the filesystem (optional)

Download the contents of this repo and extract it anywhere you want. If you skip this step you will not be able to list all available modules with LibPQ() call and every time you load a module LibPQ will access the network.

Add LibPQ to the workbook

Create two blank queries in your workbook:

LibPQ - copy the contents of LibPQ.pq verbatim
LibPQPath - provide location of modules source code (local and/or web). See sample at LibPQPath-sample.pq

Import LibPQ modules when writing your queries

Import any of the available modules via LibPQ("modulename") when writing your queries in Advanced Editor.

To import all modules available locally use LibPQ() with no arguments (or null). That will return a record where keys are module names and values are the results of loading those modules (function object or output of a query).

LibPQ modules

All modules are grouped into namespaces, much like the standard library:

Date - Functions for working with dates
Factory - Functions that create other functions
Folder - Functions for manupulating folders and their contents
Function - Functions that operate on other functions
List - Functions for working with lists
Module - LibPQ tools for importing source code
Read - Functions that import data
Table - Functions for table operations
Tests - Unit tests for LibPQ modules
Text - Functions for working with text
UnitTest - Unit testing framework

Detailed module list is available in documentation, and each module has a clear description in the comment at the top of its source file.

Compatibility with @tycho01's library

LibPQ allows specifying multiple possible locations for source code, that's why you can add @tycho01's library as a fallback.

Any module from that library should be supported, though some will require adding a Load query to your workbook. To create a Load alias for LibPQ you need to:

Create a new blank query
Replace all its code with text LibPQ
Save the query under the name Load

Now the Load function will be available from #shared context, and you should be able to import any module from @tycho01's library.

Contributing

All contributions are welcome! Please check CONTRIBUTING.md for details

Support

Issue tracker

GitHub's issue tracker is the primary venue for asking and answering support questions. Please don't forget to search closed issues for the topic you're interested in!

If you know an answer to the question asked by someone else, please do not hesitate to post it! That would be a great help to the project!

Email

If for some reason you'd rather not use the issue tracker, contacting me via email is OK too. Please use a descriptive subject line to enhance visibility of your message. Also please keep in mind that support through the channels accessible to the public is preferable because one answer can help many people who might read it later.

My email is visible under the GitHub profile and in the commit log.

Community support

You might get faster and more interactive support from other users.

This project does not (yet) have a dedicated community venue, but experienced PowerBI/Power Query users will most likely be able to figure out most common questions. You can try asking at the local PowerBI-related forums, Facebook groups, IRC/Discord/Telegram chats or on Reddit/StackOverflow.

License and copyright

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use these files except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.

vinicius-caldeira/LibPQ