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Qiong Zhang's avatar
Qiong Zhang
Copper Contributor
Jul 04, 2017

'Data could not be retrieved from the database' error when using power query to get data from xlsx

I was using 'Power Query' addin in Excel 2010 to get data from an old .xlsx file. It was working perfectly fine and loading data into table in current workbook until I 'Unpivoted' some columns. I don't understand why 'Unpivot Other Columns' operations can stop data load and throw me an 'Data could not be retrieved from the database' error.

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5 Replies

  • Guy Hunkin's avatar
    Guy Hunkin
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Jul 25, 2017

    Hi there,

     

    What happens if you remove the "unpivot" step? Does it work?

     

    In any case, would you mind sharing the workbook, please? Just make sure it doens't contain any sensitive or confidential information.

     

    Guy

    - Ecel Team

    • Qiong Zhang's avatar
      Qiong Zhang
      Copper Contributor
      Jul 26, 2017

      It was working before the 'Unpivot' step and can be load into tables. 

      I managed to find out by repeating the same process in Power BI that it was due to calculation errors in the original xls files. Power BI gives a more prescriptive warnings than Power Query 2010.

      Thanks for your reply.

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