Web data import in Power BI - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Sample data imported from a web source showing countries and their populations.

Cell	Value
A1	Country
B1	Population
A2	USA
B2	331000000
A3	India
B3	1380000000
A4	Brazil
B4	213000000

Formula Trace

Web.Contents("https://example.com/api/population")

Step 1: Web.Contents("https://example.com/api/population")

Step 2: Json.Document(Web.Contents("https://example.com/api/population"))

Step 3: Table.FromList(Json.Document(Web.Contents("https://example.com/api/population")), Splitter.SplitByNothing(), null, null, ExtraValues.Error)

Step 4: Table.ExpandRecordColumn(previous_step, "Column1", {"Country", "Population"})

Cell Reference Map

    A           B
1 | Country   | Population
2 | USA       | 331000000
3 | India     | 1380000000
4 | Brazil    | 213000000

The imported table has two columns: Country and Population, with data from the web API.

Result

    A           B
1 | Country   | Population
2 | USA       | 331000000
3 | India     | 1380000000
4 | Brazil    | 213000000

The final table shows countries and their populations imported from the web source.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the function Web.Contents("https://example.com/api/population") do?

A It expands records into columns.

B It fetches raw data from the web URL.

C It parses JSON data into a table.

D It filters the data by country.

Key Result

Web.Contents fetches data from a URL; Json.Document parses JSON; Table.FromList converts list to table; Table.ExpandRecordColumn expands records into columns.