Table.ExpandRecordColumn

Table

Expands a column of records into individual columns.

Syntax

Table.ExpandRecordColumn(table as table, column as text, fieldNames as list, optional newColumnNames as nullable list) as table

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`table`	`table`	Yes	The input table containing a record column to expand.
`column`	`text`	Yes	The name of the column containing records to expand.
`fieldNames`	`list`	Yes	A list of field names from the records to expand into columns.
`newColumnNames`	`list`	No	Optional list of new column names for the expanded fields. Must match the length of fieldNames.

Return Value

table — A table with the specified record column replaced by individual columns for each field.

Remarks

Table.ExpandRecordColumn replaces a column of records with individual columns for each specified field. This commonly occurs when working with JSON or API data that contains nested objects, or when a custom column returns a record with multiple computed values.

Use the optional newColumnNames parameter to rename fields during expansion — for example, to add a prefix and avoid name collisions with existing columns.

Unlike Table.ExpandTableColumn (which expands nested tables), this function expands records — single rows of named fields.

Examples

Example 1: Expand computed record fields

let
    Source = Table.SelectColumns(Table.FirstN(Sales, 3), {"OrderID", "CustomerName", "UnitPrice", "Quantity"}),
    WithCalc = Table.AddColumn(Source, "Calc", each [Total = [UnitPrice] * [Quantity], DoubleQty = [Quantity] * 2])
in
    Table.ExpandRecordColumn(WithCalc, "Calc", {"Total", "DoubleQty"})

Result

	OrderID	CustomerName	UnitPrice	Quantity	Total	DoubleQty
1	1	Alice	25	4	100	8
2	2	Bob	50	2	100	4
3	3	Charlie	15	10	150	20

Compatibility

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