Swapping data source and table names without error

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Swapping data source and table name without error
Swapping data source and table name without error

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 06 June 2025

In this blog

The Problem
Moving measures
Renaming tables and columns
Editing the query
The Result

The Problem

In Power BI I have an existing data model which contains a table called Purchase. The report contains multiple visualisations which display columns from the Purchase table.

The Purchase table has wrong names contains measures and mroe

This table visual uses columns from the Purchase table.

The problem is that the original source table no longer exists and the new source table and its columns have different names.

Data stored in an Excel workbook

The new data source column headers are different to the original.

When data sources change we can't just delete the old table and pull in the new one (because it will break all of the visuals which refer to it). The rest of this blog explains how to successfully replace a table which is already being in visuals, hopefully without breaking anything!

Moving measures

When you delete a table any measures created in it will also be deleted, we need to move the measures to avoid this.

To do this, select a measure then from the ribbon choose Home | Measure tools | Home table and choose a different table from the dropdown.

Change the Home table to another

Consider creating a specific table to store all your measures.

Renaming tables and columns

Now we can rename the old table and column names to match those of the new source table.

In the Data pane update your column names to exactly match the column names in the new data source.

Rename the columns to match the new column names

Characters like spaces matter!

Now repeat this for the table name making sure the characters and case are the same in both data sources.

Update the table name to the new one

This process IS case sensitive.

Editing the query

We can now move to the Query Editor and set up the new data source connections.

From the ribbon choose Home | Transform data and select Transform data from the drop down.

From the Home choose Transform data

This opens the Query Editor.

In the Queries panel, right-click on the old table and choose Delete to remove it.

Delete the old table notice it has the new name

There is no undo button so double check you delete the right table!

Now you can import the new table into your data source as normal.

Importing a new table from Excel

Here I am importing from an Excel sheet.

Power BI will add the new table to the bottom of the Queries pane.

List of the new tables

This name should be identical to the renamed old table.

Select Home | Close & Apply from the ribbon to import your updated table.

Add the data in

There is no going back now!

The Result

Power BI will now replace the old table with the new one and, if everything matches, there should be no error signs.

Updated to the new table without errors!

This is much faster than having to recreate all the visuals and calculations from scratch!

Some other pages relevant to the above blog include:

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