Connecting to a Folder

Let's practice loading a folder full of files. We won't need to upload files one by one or manually merge tables—everything will happen automatically, provided the files follow two rules:

• Each file must have a sheet with the same name, and case sensitivity matters. The file names can vary, but if the sheet names differ, Power Query will simply ignore the table;
• We'll have fewer formatting issues if the tables have the same number of columns with similar content.

Note

You've downloaded the archive in ZIP format, so you’ll need to unzip it first before connecting it to Power Query.

The folder contains 6 files with data on operating expenses for the first half of 2024. Each file has a sheet with the same name, 'OPEX', which includes tables with 6 columns: the month in text format, Cost type, Account ID, Account name, Bakery ID, and OPEX (USD). We need this data to calculate the profitability of the bakeries and for further analysis.

Let's repeat the steps from the video for building a connection to the folder. Here is a short summary of the video.

In the next video, we'll learn how to connect to the Database. Stay tuned! 🌟