Csv.Document

Accessing Data

Parses CSV text into a table.

Syntax

Csv.Document(source as any, optional columns as any, optional delimiter as any, optional extraValues as nullable number, optional encoding as nullable number) as table

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`source`	`any`	Yes	The CSV text or binary content to parse.
`columns`	`any`	No	The number of columns, a list of column names, a table type, or an options record.
`delimiter`	`any`	No	The column delimiter. Defaults to comma (",").
`extraValues`	`number`	No	How to handle extra values per row (ExtraValues.Error, ExtraValues.Ignore, or ExtraValues.List).
`encoding`	`number`	No	The text encoding of the source (e.g., TextEncoding.Utf8).

Return Value

table — A table parsed from the CSV content.

Remarks

Csv.Document parses CSV (comma-separated values) text or binary content into a table. It is most commonly used in combination with File.Contents or Web.Contents to load external CSV files:

Csv.Document(File.Contents("C:\Data\sales.csv"), [Delimiter = ",", Encoding = TextEncoding.Utf8])

The columns parameter accepts several forms:

A number — the expected column count (columns are named Column1, Column2, etc.).
A list of text — column names to assign.
A table type — defines both column names and types in one step.
An options record — with fields like Delimiter, Encoding, CsvStyle, and QuoteStyle.

When the first row contains headers, wrap the result in Table.PromoteHeaders to use it as column names.

CsvStyle.QuoteAlways and CsvStyle.QuoteAfterDelimiter control how quoted fields are handled. QuoteStyle.Csv (the default) treats double-quotes as field wrappers; QuoteStyle.None treats them as literal characters.

Examples

Example 1: Parse inline CSV text

let
    CsvText = "Name,Age,City#(lf)Alice,30,Seattle#(lf)Bob,25,Portland",
    Parsed = Csv.Document(CsvText, [Delimiter = ","]),
    Promoted = Table.PromoteHeaders(Parsed, [PromoteAllScalars = true])
in
    Promoted

Applied Steps

The final output — a table with named columns and two data rows parsed from the inline CSV string.

	Name	Age	City
1	Alice	30	Seattle
2	Bob	25	Portland

Example 2: Parse with a typed schema

let
    CsvText = "Product,Price#(lf)Widget,9.99#(lf)Gadget,14.50",
    Schema = type table [Product = text, Price = number],
    Parsed = Csv.Document(CsvText, Schema)
in
    Table.PromoteHeaders(Parsed, [PromoteAllScalars = true])

Applied Steps

The final output — Table.PromoteHeaders promotes the first row as column names, yielding a two-row table with Product and Price columns.

	Product	Price
1	Widget	9.99
2	Gadget	14.50

Compatibility

✓ Power BI Desktop✓ Power BI Service✓ Excel Desktop✓ Excel Online✓ Dataflows✓ Fabric Notebooks

Contributors