Splitter.SplitByNothing

Splitter

Returns a splitter function that does not split its input — it returns each value as a single-element list.

Examples on this page use shared sample tables. View them to understand the input data before reading the examples below.

Syntax

Return Value

functionA function that wraps each input value in a single-element list without splitting it.

Remarks

Splitter.SplitByNothing returns a splitter function that wraps each input value in a single-element list without any splitting. It is the identity splitter: Splitter.SplitByNothing()("Hello") returns {"Hello"}. The function takes no parameters — just call it with empty parentheses to get the splitter, then call the returned function on a value.

This function's primary purpose is to serve as a no-op placeholder in contexts where a splitter function is required by the API but you do not want any splitting to occur. The most common example is Table.SplitColumn: if you call it with Splitter.SplitByNothing(), each column value is preserved as-is and placed into a single output column, effectively renaming or reformatting the column without splitting its contents.

This can also be useful when building generic transformation pipelines where the splitter is a parameter. By substituting Splitter.SplitByNothing(), you can disable splitting behavior without restructuring the pipeline logic.

Examples

Example 1: Apply the no-op splitter to a text value

Result
Result
1Widget A

Example 2: Use in Table.SplitColumn to preserve column values

Table.SplitColumn(
    #table({"Product"}, {{"Widget A"}, {"Gadget B"}, {"Widget C"}}),
    "Product",
    Splitter.SplitByNothing()
)
Result
Product.1
1Widget A
2Gadget B
3Widget C

Example 3: Verify the splitter always returns a single-element list

let
    splitter = Splitter.SplitByNothing(),
    result = splitter("Sales Rep")
in
    List.Count(result)
Applied Steps

The final output — the count of elements in the list, which is always 1 because SplitByNothing never splits.

Result
11

Compatibility

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