Xml.Document

Accessing Data

Parses XML content into a nested table structure.

Syntax

Xml.Document(contents as any, optional encoding as nullable number) as table

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`contents`	`any`	Yes	The XML text or binary content to parse.
`encoding`	`number`	No	The text encoding of the content (e.g., TextEncoding.Utf8).

Return Value

table — A table representing the XML document structure.

Remarks

Xml.Document parses XML content and returns a nested table representing the document structure. Each element in the XML becomes a row with the following columns:

Column	Type	Description
`Name`	text	The element tag name.
`Namespace`	text	The XML namespace URI (empty string if none).
`Value`	text	The text content of the element (null if it contains child elements).
`Attributes`	table	A table of attribute name-value pairs for the element.
`[Children]`	table	A nested table containing child elements, with the same column structure.

Working with nested XML

Because XML is hierarchical, the result is deeply nested. You typically need multiple expansion steps:

1. Parse the XML to get the root-level table. 2. Filter or select the element you need by Name. 3. Expand the child table to drill deeper. 4. Repeat until you reach the leaf data.

Typical pattern

let
    Source = Xml.Document(File.Contents("C:\Data\orders.xml")),
    Root = Source{0}[Value],              // drill into root element
    Orders = Root{[Name = "Orders"]}[Value], // navigate to Orders node
    Expanded = Table.ExpandTableColumn(Orders, "Value", {"Name", "Value"})
in
    Expanded

Notes

For large XML files, consider using Xml.Tables instead, which provides a flattened view more suitable for tabular consumption.
Attributes are returned as a separate nested table on each element. Use Table.ExpandTableColumn on the Attributes column to access them.
Namespace-aware XML requires matching on the Namespace column when filtering elements.

Compatibility

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

Contributors