Creating Power Query M queries

As mentioned, the M language is a functional programming language that includes over 700 functions. Similar to other programming languages, M has its own specific syntax, structure, operators, and data types that must be used when coding. Experienced Power Query (M) developers, for example, are very familiar with Lists, Records, and Tables and common use cases and M functions available for working with these specific types.

While a full exploration of the entire M language is beyond the scope of this book, there are a number of important subjects regarding M that we cover in the following sections as well as providing readers with examples of more complex M queries. For readers interested in fully understanding the M language, we refer them to the official Power Query M language specification found here: https://bit.ly/3vmFSyr.

We’ll first take a look at numeric data types in M.

Numeric data types

For structured data sources, such...