Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer AssociatePrepare and transform data (20-25%)Easy

A data engineer is working on a Dataflow Gen2 to ingest product data from a legacy CSV file that uses a semicolon (`;`) as a delimiter instead of a comma. The file also contains a header row. Which option in the Power Query Editor's Text/CSV connector configuration should the engineer adjust to correctly parse this file?

  1. AModify the 'Delimiter' option to 'Semicolon'.
  2. BAdjust the 'Quote character' setting.
  3. CChange the 'Origin' to 'Unicode (UTF-8)'.
  4. DSet 'Data Type Detection' to 'Do not detect data types'.
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A. Modify the 'Delimiter' option to 'Semicolon'.

The 'Delimiter' option in the Power Query Editor's Text/CSV connector configuration is specifically used to specify the character that separates columns in the text file. For a CSV file using a semicolon, changing this setting to 'Semicolon' will ensure the data is parsed into columns correctly.

Why the other options are wrong

  • B. The 'Quote character' handles how fields containing delimiters are enclosed (e.g., double quotes), not the primary delimiter itself.
  • C. Origin refers to the file's character encoding, which is unrelated to the column delimiter.
  • D. Data Type Detection affects how Power Query infers column types, not how it splits columns based on delimiters.

Power Query CSV Delimiter

In Power Query Editor's Text/CSV connector, the 'Delimiter' option specifies the character used to separate columns in a text or CSV file. It is crucial for correct parsing of files using non-standard delimiters like semicolons.

  • Defines column separation in text/CSV files.
  • Configurable in the source settings of the Text/CSV connector.
  • Essential for correctly parsing non-comma delimited files.
  • Common delimiters include comma, semicolon, tab, and pipe.

Memory trick: Delimiter cuts the CSV file properly.

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