How to Parse HTML-Like Text into a Table - Power Query Challenge 79
How to Parse HTML-Like Text into a Table - Power Query Challenge 79
In this Power Query Challenge, we take messy, HTML-style text embedded in a single Excel column — and turn it into a clean, structured table.
No, it’s not real HTML. And no, Excel doesn’t like it.
But with Power Query, we’ll extract fields like id, val, status, and more — even when some tags are missing.
🛠 In This Video, You’ll Learn:
How to parse pseudo-HTML using Text.BetweenDelimiters
A second, slick method using Xml.Tables for well-formed data
How to deal with optional or missing tags without breaking your logic
Which approach is safer, faster, and easier to maintain
Whether you’re cleaning up exported system logs, dealing with web-scraped data, or fixing legacy reports, this tutorial will show you exactly how to turn chaos into clean columns.
✅ Key Takeaways:
✔️ Turn messy embedded tags into structured data
✔️ Handle missing fields like a pro (no errors!)
✔️ Compare manual vs. automatic parsing methods
✔️ Learn when Xml.Tables is brilliant — and when it breaks
🎯 Perfect for Excel users who work with:
– XML-like exports
– API outputs
– Survey tools that dump raw text
– Or any table with weird, inconsistent formatting
💬 Have you ever wrestled with ugly text in Excel?
Drop a sample in the comments — I’ll take a look!
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#PowerQuery #ExcelChallenge #DataCleaning #ExcelTips #HowToLearnExcel #ParseTextExcel #XmlTables #TextBetweenDelimiters
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Links:
Challenge Author: Omid Motamedisedeh
LinkedIn: / omidmot
Youtube: / @omidbi
Challenge Post: / omidmot_exclude-powerabrquery-excel-activi...
Solution: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...