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Excel Power Query: Complete Introduction in 2 Hours
Role Play
Rating: 4.6 out of 5(6,418 ratings)
19,347 students

Excel Power Query: Complete Introduction in 2 Hours

Load, transform and clean your data with Excel Power Query, then refresh next month's report in one click
Role Play
Created byIan Littlejohn
Last updated 3/2026
English

What you'll learn

  • Build a repeatable data pipeline in Excel that reloads next month's file in one click, instead of redoing the work
  • Filter rows, fix data types, split and remove columns, and add calculated columns in the Power Query Editor
  • Write conditional IF rules inside Power Query to categorize your data without a single worksheet formula
  • Merge two tables on a matching column, and append separate files into one table ready for analysis
  • Group and summarize data with Group By, and write custom calculations inside the query itself
  • Find and fix dirty data using Query Editor Diagnostics, so errors surface before they reach your report
  • Load data from SQL Server, CSV, XML, JSON, web pages and Excel tables using the same repeatable workflow
  • Choose where each query lands with the Load To option, and feed a cleaned table straight into Power Pivot

Course content

6 sections • 37 lectures • 2h 2m total length

  • Introduction1:46

    Introduction to the Course

  • About the Course1:23
  • Please download the Training Data Files0:04
  • Overview of the Query Editor8:37
  • Welcome to the Udemy Roleplay!0:36
  • Discussion about using Excel Power Query for your data analysis

Requirements

  • You should be comfortable working with data in Excel and doing basic reporting. No Power Query experience needed.
  • Microsoft 365 (Excel for Windows), or Excel 2021 or later. In Excel you will find Power Query on the Data tab, in the Get and Transform Data group.
  • Excel 2016 and 2019 will work for most lessons, but Microsoft ended support for both on 14 October 2025 and their Power Query feature set is smaller than the one shown in the course.
  • The SQL Server lesson is a demonstration. You do not need your own database to complete this course - every practical activity uses the training files provided. No Microsoft 365 Copilot licence is required. Everything in this course is built with standard Excel features.
  • On a Mac you will need a Microsoft 365 subscription and Excel 16.69 or later. Mac supports fewer sources - Excel workbook, Text/CSV, XML, JSON, SQL Server, SharePoint Online list and OData. The web source shown in section 5 is Windows only.

Description

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Every lesson in this course is written, created and recorded by me. AI is used only to help produce supporting images and written materials around the lessons.


Most people spend more time preparing their data than analyzing it. Power Query changes that. You build the cleaning and reshaping steps once, Excel remembers them, and next month's file takes one click instead of an afternoon.

If you are tired of repeating the same tidy-up every month, this is the course for you. It is two hours, it is Power Query only, and you will have a working, refreshable query before the end of section 2.


WHAT YOU WILL BUILD

  • Basic transformations - filter rows, fix data types, split and remove columns, add calculated columns, and choose where each query lands with the Load To option

  • Advanced transformations - merge two tables on a matching column, append separate files into one table, group and summarize, and write custom calculations inside the query

  • Conditional rules - categorize your data with IF logic in Power Query, without a worksheet formula

  • Data cleansing - find and fix dirty data with Query Editor Diagnostics, before it reaches your report

  • Connect to data sources - SQL Server, CSV, XML, JSON, web pages and Excel tables, all through the same workflow

  • A Power Pivot case study - feed a cleaned query straight into the data model

Every section sets a practical activity and then walks through the answer on video, and eleven training data files mean you are working on exactly the data I am.

MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR

I have been training business people to work with data since 2008, and publishing on Udemy since 2013. I now have 16 live courses, more than 450,000 enrolments and more than 139,000 reviews, averaging 4.6.

I specialise in teaching business users the analysis methods behind the tools - Microsoft Excel, Copilot in Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Looker Studio and Amazon QuickSight. I teach the analysis, not just the software.

WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING

  • "Easy to follow. Ian explained the steps well, gave reasons for why certain things happen and some pitfalls you might encounter."

  • "This course is highly beneficial, especially for those who work with multiple dates and tables. It makes your job much easier."

  • "Great course for learning the basics of Power Query and to be able to apply it to current data I need to sort through more efficiently."

Ready to stop redoing the same work every month? Start with the first transformation and see how far two hours gets you.

Who this course is for:

  • Excel users who spend more of each month cleaning and reshaping data than analyzing it, and want to automate that work once and reuse it.
  • Analysts and report builders who are comfortable with formulas and PivotTables, but have never opened the Power Query Editor.
  • If you want these same data preparation skills inside Power BI rather than Excel, take Complete Introduction to Power BI Query Editor instead. It covers the same ground in the Power BI Query Editor. This course is the Excel version.
  • This is the data preparation course in my Excel series. Tables and Formulas with Excel covers the foundations, and Complete Introduction to Excel Power Pivot covers the data model and DAX once your data is loaded.

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