{"id":2024,"date":"2026-09-16T08:36:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entri.app\/explore\/?post_type=curriculum&#038;p=2024"},"modified":"2026-09-16T08:39:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:39:20","slug":"unpivot-in-power-bi","status":"publish","type":"curriculum","link":"https:\/\/entri.app\/explore\/power-bi\/unpivot-in-power-bi\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpivot in Power BI"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What Is Unpivot in Power BI? \u2014 Pivot and Unpivot Explained<\/h2>\n<p>Unpivot in Power BI is a Power Query transformation that converts columns into rows \u2014 turning a wide, crosstab-style table into a tall, normalized &#8216;Attribute\u2013Value&#8217; format. It is the reverse of pivoting and is essential for reshaping data so Power BI visuals and DAX measures work correctly.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Do You Need to Unpivot Data in Power BI?<\/h2>\n<p>Many source files (especially Excel exports) store data in a pivoted, crosstab layout \u2014 months as columns, products as rows. While easy to read as a spreadsheet, this format is difficult for Power BI to chart and measure. Unpivoting normalizes the data into a single &#8216;Month&#8217; column and a single &#8216;Value&#8217; column, letting slicers, filters, and time-intelligence DAX functions work as expected.<\/p>\n<h2>How to Unpivot Columns in Power BI<\/h2>\n<p>Select the columns you want to unpivot (e.g., Jan, Feb, Mar, \u2026 Dec), then click Transform \u2192 Unpivot Columns. Power Query creates two new columns: &#8216;Attribute&#8217; (containing the old column headers) and &#8216;Value&#8217; (containing the cell values). Rename them to something meaningful (e.g., &#8216;Month&#8217; and &#8216;Sales Amount&#8217;).<\/p>\n<h2>Unpivot Columns vs. Unpivot Other Columns<\/h2>\n<p>Power Query offers three unpivot options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><\/b><strong><b>Unpivot Columns: <\/b><\/strong>Unpivots only the selected columns.<\/li>\n<li><b><\/b><strong><b>Unpivot Other Columns: <\/b><\/strong>Keeps the selected columns fixed and unpivots everything else. This is the recommended approach because it automatically handles new columns added to the source later (e.g., a new month column).<\/li>\n<li><b><\/b><strong><b>Unpivot Only Selected Columns: <\/b><\/strong>Same as Unpivot Columns \u2014 explicitly unpivots only what you select.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Power BI Unpivot Multiple Columns \u2014 Practical Example<\/h2>\n<p>Suppose you have a table with columns: Product, Q1_Revenue, Q2_Revenue, Q3_Revenue, Q4_Revenue. Select the Q1\u2013Q4 columns, right-click \u2192 Unpivot Columns. The result is three columns: Product, Attribute (Q1_Revenue, Q2_Revenue, etc.), and Value. Rename Attribute to &#8216;Quarter&#8217; and clean the values (e.g., extract just &#8216;Q1&#8217;) using Replace Values or a Column From Examples step.<\/p>\n<h2>How to Unpivot Columns in Power BI \u2014 Step-by-Step Tutorial<\/h2>\n<p>This tutorial shows you how to transform a wide, crosstab-style Excel table into a normalized tall format using Unpivot in Power Query. You will finish in 4 steps and under 5 minutes.<\/p>\n<h3>Steps<\/h3>\n<p><strong><b>Step 1: Load data into Power Query<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Open Power BI Desktop, click Home \u2192 Get Data, select your file, and click Transform Data to open Power Query Editor.<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>Step 2: Select columns to keep fixed<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Click the columns that should remain as-is (e.g., Product, Region). Hold Ctrl to select multiple.<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>Step 3: Unpivot the rest<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the fixed columns selected, go to Transform \u2192 Unpivot Other Columns. Power Query creates &#8216;Attribute&#8217; and &#8216;Value&#8217; columns from all the other columns.<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>Step 4: Rename and clean<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Double-click the &#8216;Attribute&#8217; column header and rename it (e.g., &#8216;Month&#8217;). Do the same for &#8216;Value&#8217; (e.g., &#8216;Sales Amount&#8217;). Use Replace Values if the attribute names need cleaning (e.g., removing a prefix). Click Close &amp; Apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Is Unpivot in Power BI? \u2014 Pivot and Unpivot Explained Unpivot in Power BI is a Power Query transformation that converts columns into rows \u2014 turning a wide, crosstab-style table into a tall, normalized &#8216;Attribute\u2013Value&#8217; format. It is the reverse of pivoting and is essential for reshaping data so Power BI visuals and DAX [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"curriculum-category":[90],"custom_linking_tags":[133],"class_list":["post-2024","curriculum","type-curriculum","status-publish","hentry","curriculum-category-power-bi","custom_linking_tags-merging-queries"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unpivot in Power BI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/entri.app\/explore\/power-bi\/unpivot-in-power-bi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unpivot in Power BI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What Is Unpivot in Power BI? \u2014 Pivot and Unpivot Explained Unpivot in Power BI is a Power Query transformation that converts columns into rows \u2014 turning a wide, crosstab-style table into a tall, normalized &#8216;Attribute\u2013Value&#8217; format. 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