I have two columns of data in Excel. Using PowerQuery I am trying to divide these two columns and call it column X. The problem is that there are zeros in these two columns meaning that we get a "#NUM!" in Column X when dividing. How can I write an IF statement in PowerQuery so that IF the value of column X (the division) is Nan (#NUM!) then it is set to zero?
The below doesn't change the NaN's to zeros:
if[Column1]/[Column2]="NaN" then 0 else[Column1]/[Column2]
This should be a FAQ but approach is similar in almost every langage. I'd write your statement like this: if [Column2] = 0 then 0 else [column1]/[column2]. Should work for all non-zero denominators.
Other thought, I just used this: Powerquery (and PowerPivot) has a divide function that is divide-by-zero-safe! divide(column1,column2). Shorter to write and should perform better as it is only performing the calculation once. Especially with more complex denominators.
Final thought: because they aren't additive, I tend not to store ratios in the PQ results choosing instead to calculate dynamically in powerpivot or elsewhere in the reporting. In Excel you can use =iferror(a/b, 0).
JR
