Skip to main content

Power BI

Needs Votes

Friendly Column Names

Vote (7) Share
Justin Jones's profile image

Justin Jones on 20 Jul 2017 10:09:35

I would like to be able to easily rename column headers of a data set without actually changing the names. For example, If I have a data set with the columns requestcount, monthid, and statustype I want a place in the query editor to rename those columns to Requests, Month, and Status without altering the query. The reason for this is when I'm using the ask question of your data feature I want the friendly names to pop up rather than the actual column names. That way the users don't have to see our internal naming conventions for our datasets.

Comments (2)
Justin Jones's profile image Profile Picture

Jon on 06 Jul 2020 00:01:02

RE: Friendly Column Names

Hi Jurgen VD,

This is available at the visual level already, but it is inconvenient. It would be better if we could provide an Alias/Friendly Name within Field Properties that would apply whenever we add the field to a visual.

I use very developer oriented names like "_dm_Vol_Resolved" for a Dax Measure for Volume Resolved. I do this for organization of my fields, which makes development faster from my end. The friendly name I would apply is "Resolved Count".

The closest thing available now is Synonyms, but that only works for Q and A visuals.

Justin Jones's profile image Profile Picture

Jurgen VD on 05 Jul 2020 22:54:26

RE: Friendly Column Names

Hi Justin,

if i undertand well what you mean, this feature is already implemented in the latest version of powerbi.
I used it already several times and it works great.
more info you can find here
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-july-feature-summary-2/#rename.