Excel.Workbook

Accessing Data

Returns the contents of an Excel workbook as a navigation table.

Syntax

Excel.Workbook(workbook as binary, optional useHeaders as any, optional delayTypes as nullable logical) as table

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`workbook`	`binary`	Yes	The binary content of an Excel workbook (.xlsx or .xls).
`useHeaders`	`any`	No	When true, the first row of each sheet is treated as column headers. Can also be null.
`delayTypes`	`logical`	No	When true, type detection is deferred until data is accessed, which can improve performance.

Return Value

table — A navigation table listing the sheets, tables, and named ranges in the workbook.

Remarks

Excel.Workbook reads the binary content of an Excel file and returns a navigation table with the following columns:

Column	Type	Description
`Name`	text	The name of the sheet, table, or named range.
`Data`	table	The data contained within that item.
`Item`	text	The type of item: `"Sheet"`, `"Table"`, or `"DefinedName"`.
`Kind`	text	Same as Item (included for compatibility).
`Hidden`	logical	Whether the sheet or item is hidden.

Common patterns

Load a specific sheet by name:

let
    Source = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents("C:\Data\report.xlsx"), true),
    SalesSheet = Source{[Item = "Sheet", Name = "Sales"]}[Data]
in
    SalesSheet

Load a named table:

let
    Source = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents("C:\Data\report.xlsx"), true),
    OrdersTable = Source{[Item = "Table", Name = "tblOrders"]}[Data]
in
    OrdersTable

Notes

Pass true for useHeaders to promote the first row of each sheet to column headers automatically.
Setting delayTypes to true can improve performance for large workbooks by deferring type inference.
The navigation table includes all sheets, named tables, and defined names. Use row filtering ({[Item = "Sheet", Name = "..."]}) to drill into a specific item.
Hidden sheets appear in the result with Hidden = true. Filter them out if needed.

Compatibility

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

Contributors