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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / I want to analyse the ...
Power Automate
Suggested Answer

I want to analyse the changes between two large datasets.

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I have been redirected from the general Microsoft Office forum to here as it might be more appropriate.
 
I have no experience with Power Automate at this point, but here is my question:

I have a monthly report which has a set number of columns, 102, but it is an extract which gains new data every month. Currently at around 27,000 rows.

I would like to find a way to find any changes which have occurred in the dataset, such as information changes to existing information which has been updated as the month passed. And also find a way to work out which new rows have been added, i.e data which wasn't there in the previous month but is there in the new months data.

I have tried Power Query Merge function but I can't get it to work. I have also attempted Xlookups for each cell, but given the size of the dataset it seems a bit excessive. (I have now learnt these were probably the incorrect approaches).

Ideally I would be able to copy the new report into an excel sheet, or power BI each month and automatically have an output with all the changed cells and new rows added.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I have the same question (0)
  • Suggested answer
    Sunil Kumar Pashikanti Profile Picture
    1,286 Moderator on at
     
    Use Power Query with a key-based Full Outer Join and row comparison to automatically detect new and changed records between monthly datasets, scalable, fast, and refreshable without formulas.
     
    ✅ If this answer helped resolve your issue, please mark it as Accepted so it can help others with the same problem.
    👍 Feel free to Like the post if you found it useful.
     
     
     
  • MS.Ragavendar Profile Picture
    6,245 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
     
    Comparing with power automate will be huge task of 102 columns * 27000 rows.
     
    Is there any Identity / Unique Key columns exist in each rows of data ? If yes it will be easy or else you need create a unique column by combine two columns which will serve as Identity.
     
    Load Previous Month → PrevData
    Load Current Month → CurrData

    Data → Get Data → From Excel → Load to Power Query
     
    Find New Rows (Exists in Current, Not in Previous)
     
    Merge:
    • CurrData → Left
    • PrevData → Right
    Join on Key - Join Kind → Left Anti this Output will provide us New rows added this month
     
     
    Find Changed Rows (The Important Part)
     
    Step A: Inner Join on Key
    Join Current ↔ Previous using Inner Join
     
    Step B: Expand Previous columns
                 Rename columns clearly: Amount_Curr, Amount_Prev, etc.
     
    Step C: Add a “Changed?” Column
     
    = if [Amount_Curr] <> [Amount_Prev]
       or [Status_Curr] <> [Status_Prev]
       then "Changed"
       else "No Change"
     
     
    ✅If this helped, please Accept as Solution to help others ❤️ A Like is appreciated 🏷️ Tag @MS.Ragavendar for follow-ups.
     
  • MS.Ragavendar Profile Picture
    6,245 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
     
    A quick follow-up to see, does the suggestion worked for you or still you were looking for any other approaches or assistance.
     
    ✅If this helped, please Accept as Solution to help others ❤️ A Like is appreciated 🏷️ Tag @MS.Ragavendar for follow-ups.

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