Unlocking Textual Data Potential with Power BI Contains String

In today’s data-driven world, understanding and leveraging textual data is more important than ever. Textual data, which can come from a variety of sources such as social media, customer feedback, or internal communications, contains rich insights. However, making sense of this data can be challenging. Power BI, a leading data visualization and analysis tool, offers a robust feature—Contains String—to help extract meaningful insights from textual data. Let’s dive into how Power BI’s Contains String function works and how you can harness its power to unlock the potential of textual data.

What is the Contains String Function?

The Contains String function in Power BI is a built-in feature that helps you filter or identify rows of data containing specific substrings. This is particularly useful when dealing with large datasets that include unstructured text, such as product reviews, feedback comments, or even data logs. By applying the Contains String function, you can easily spot patterns, trends, or specific data points that meet your criteria.

For example, if you’re analyzing customer reviews and you want to identify all feedback that contains the word “excellent,” you can use the Contains String function to filter your data accordingly. This function simplifies the process of searching through complex text and ensures you can focus on the most relevant data.

How Does the Contains String Function Work?

Power BI’s Contains String function works by searching for a substring within a text field. It returns a Boolean value (True or False) depending on whether the substring is found. You can use this function within Power Query, the query editor for Power BI, to clean and transform your data before it’s visualized.

Syntax

The basic syntax for the Contains String function looks like this:

Text.Contains(text as nullable text, substring as text, optional comparer as nullable function) as logical

text: The text field you want to search through.
substring: The text string you’re looking for within the field.
comparer (optional): A function to specify case-sensitivity or other comparison criteria.

Example

If you have a column of customer feedback, you could apply the following expression to check if the feedback contains the word “happy”:

Text.Contains([Feedback], "happy")

This would return True for rows where the feedback contains the word “happy” and False for rows where it doesn’t.

Practical Use Cases of Contains String in Power BI

1. Analyzing Customer Sentiment

One of the most common applications of the Contains String function is in sentiment analysis. Suppose you have a dataset of customer feedback or social media posts. You can use Contains String to filter feedback containing certain positive or negative words like “satisfied,” “delighted,” “disappointed,” or “angry.” This helps you quickly identify customer sentiment and take the appropriate actions.

2. Monitoring Brand Mentions

If you’re tracking your brand’s presence across different platforms, the Contains String function can help. By applying filters to your data for specific keywords like your brand name or product names, you can see how often and in what context your brand is mentioned. This gives you valuable insights into customer perceptions and public relations.

3. Tracking Product Issues

Suppose you have customer reviews for various products in your inventory. You could use Contains String to filter reviews containing specific issue-related keywords like “broken,” “faulty,” or “defective.” This allows you to spot recurring problems with products and address them quickly.

4. Data Cleaning

Contains String is also useful in data cleaning. For instance, you can search for specific strings in a text column to identify and remove unwanted data or inconsistencies, such as entries containing unnecessary characters, misformatted information, or other anomalies.

How to Use Contains String in Power BI

Step 1: Open Power Query Editor

To begin, open the Power Query Editor in Power BI Desktop by selecting Transform Data from the Home tab.

Step 2: Add a Custom Column

Next, add a custom column to apply the Contains String function. Go to Add Column in the ribbon and select Custom Column.

Step 3: Apply the Contains String Function

In the Custom Column dialog, use the Text.Contains function to check for a substring. For example, if you want to check if the column “CustomerFeedback” contains the word “good,” you would enter:

Text.Contains([CustomerFeedback], "good")

This will create a new column with True or False based on whether the feedback contains the word “good.”

Step 4: Filter the Data (Optional)

You can now use the results of the Contains String function to filter your data. If you only want to see rows where the text contains the desired substring, filter the new column to show only True values.

Step 5: Load the Data

After transforming your data, click Close & Load to load the transformed data into Power BI and start creating your visualizations.

Advanced Techniques with Contains String

Case Sensitivity

The Contains String function in Power BI is case-sensitive by default. If you want to perform a case-insensitive search, you can use the optional comparer argument:

Text.Contains([Feedback], "happy", Comparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase)

This will return True for “Happy,” “HAPPY,” or “happy.”

Combining with Other Functions

You can combine Contains String with other Power BI functions to create more complex filters. For example, if you wanted to find feedback that contains both “good” and “service,” you could use a logical AND operation:

Text.Contains([Feedback], "good") and Text.Contains([Feedback], "service")

This expression filters for feedback containing both words.

Conclusion

Power BI’s Contains String function is a powerful tool for analyzing and extracting valuable insights from textual data. Whether you are performing sentiment analysis, tracking brand mentions, or cleaning your dataset, this feature helps you easily search for specific patterns or keywords. By incorporating Contains String into your data transformation process, you can unlock the hidden potential of your textual data, leading to better decision-making and more informed business strategies.

What is the Contains String Function?

How Does the Contains String Function Work?

Syntax

Example

Practical Use Cases of Contains String in Power BI

1. Analyzing Customer Sentiment

2. Monitoring Brand Mentions

3. Tracking Product Issues

4. Data Cleaning

How to Use Contains String in Power BI

Step 1: Open Power Query Editor

Step 2: Add a Custom Column

Step 3: Apply the Contains String Function

Step 4: Filter the Data (Optional)

Step 5: Load the Data

Advanced Techniques with Contains String

Case Sensitivity

Combining with Other Functions

Conclusion

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Unlocking Textual Data Potential with Power BI Contains String

What is the Contains String Function?

How Does the Contains String Function Work?

Syntax

Example

Practical Use Cases of Contains String in Power BI

1. Analyzing Customer Sentiment

2. Monitoring Brand Mentions

3. Tracking Product Issues

4. Data Cleaning

How to Use Contains String in Power BI

Step 1: Open Power Query Editor

Step 2: Add a Custom Column

Step 3: Apply the Contains String Function

Step 4: Filter the Data (Optional)

Step 5: Load the Data

Advanced Techniques with Contains String

Case Sensitivity

Combining with Other Functions

Conclusion

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