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How to merge two or more tables into one based on key columns?

Author: Xiaoyang Last Modified: 2020-11-13

Supposing you have three tables in a workbook, now, you want to merge these tables into one table based on the corresponding key columns to get the result as below screenshot shown. This may be a troublesome task for most of us, but, please don’t worry, this article, I will introduce some methods for solving this problem.

    

Merge two or more tables into one based on key columns with Power Query function (Excel 2016 and later versions)

Merge two or more tables into one based on key columns with an amazing feature


Merge two or more tables into one based on key columns with Power Query function (Excel 2016 and later versions)

To use the Power Query function for joining multiple tables into one based on the corresponding key columns, please do with the following step by step:

1. If your data ranges are not table format, first, you should convert them to tables, please select the range, and then click Insert > Table, in the Create Table dialog box, click OK button, see screenshots:

2. After creating tables for each of the data ranges, then, select the first table, and then click Data > From Table / Range, see screenshot:

3. Then, in the Table1-Power Query Editor window, click Home > Close & Load > Close & Load To, see screenshot:

4. In the popped out Import Data, select Only Create Connection option, and then click OK button, see screenshot:

5. Then the first connection table is created in the Queries & Connections pane, now, repeat the above step 2-step 4 for creating the connection tables for the other two tables that you want to merge. When finished, you will get the below screenshot shown:

6. After creating the connections for the tables, then, you should merge first two tables into one, please click Data > Get Data > Combine Queries > Merge, see screenshot:

7. In the Merge dialog box, please do the following operations:

  • (1.) Select the first table from the first drop down list;
  • (2.) Select the second table that you want to merge from the second drop down list;
  • (3.) In the preview pane, click on the matching column from the two tables separately to select them, and the selected columns will become green.
  • (4.) In the Join Kind drop down, select Left Outer (all from first, matching from second) option.

8. Then, click OK button, in the Merge1-Power Query Editor window, click  button, see screenshot:

9. And then, in the expanded box:

  • (1.) Keep the default Expand option selected;
  • (2.) In the Select All Columns list box, check the column name that you want to merge to the first table;
  • (3.) Uncheck the Use original column name as prefix option.

10. Then, click OK button, now, you can see the column data in the second table has been added into the first table, see screenshot:

11. In this step, the first table and the second table has been merged by the key column successfully, now, you need to import this merged table to a new merge connection table, please click Home > Close & Load > Close & Load To, see screenshot:

12. In the popped out Import Data dialog box, select Only Create Connection option, and click OK button, see screenshot:

13. Here, you can see a connection is created which named Merge1 in the Queries & Connections pane, see screenshot:

14. After merging the first two tables, now, you need to combine the new Merge1 table with the third table, please click Data > Get Data > Combine Queries > Merge, and in the Merge dialog box, do the following operations:

  • (1.) Select the Merge1 table from the first drop down list;
  • (2.) Select the third table that you want to merge from the second drop down list;
  • (3.) In the preview pane, click on the matching column from the two tables separately to select them, and the selected columns will become green;
  • (4.) In the Join Kind drop down, select Left Outer (all from first, matching from second) option.

15. And then, click OK, in the Merge2-Power Query Editor window, click button, and in the expanded box, check the column name that you want to combine from the third table, and uncheck the Use original column name as prefix option as well, see screenshot:

16. Then, click OK button, you will get a merged table with the three tables together, and now, you should import this merged table to a new table sheet, please click Home > Close & Load > Close & Load To, see screenshot:

17. In the Import Data dialog box, select Table and New worksheet options, see screenshot:

18. At last, a new table with the data from the three tables based on the corresponding key columns has been created in a new worksheet as below screenshot shown:

Tips:

1. If your original data changes, you need the merged table is changed as well, please click one cell in your merged table, and then click Query > Refresh to get the refreshed data. See screenshot:

2. With this function, you can also merge much more tables by repeating the above steps.


Merge two or more tables into one based on key columns with an amazing feature

This section, I will show a useful feature – Table Merge of Kutools for Excel, with this feature, you can quickly merge two or more tables into one table based on key columns.

For example, I have two tables wanted to be merged as below screenshot shown:

Tips:To apply this Table Merge feature, firstly, you should download the Kutools for Excel, and then apply the feature quickly and easily.

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as this:

1. Click Kutools Plus > Table Merge, see screenshot:

2. In the first step of the Tables Merge wizard, please select the main table and lookup table separately, (Note: the column data in lookup table will be added to the main table), see screenshot:

3. In the step 2 of the Tables Merge wizard, please check the key column name that you want to merge the tables based on, see screenshot:

4. Click Next button, in the step 3 of the Table Merge wizard, please click Next button directly, see screenshot:

5. And then, in the step 4 of the wizard, check the column name from the lookup table that you want to add in the main table, see screenshot:

6. Go on clicking Next button, in the last step of the wizard, in the Add options list box, check Add mismatched rows to the end of the main table option, at the same time, you can also select the operations for the duplicated rows as you need. See screenshot:

7. Then, click Finish button, the corresponding data column in lookup table will be added into the main table as below screenshot shown:

Tips:

1. With this feature, you can update the data in a main table by another table as you need.

2. To merge more tables, you just need to select the result of the new merged data as the main table, and then repeat the above steps.

Click to Download Kutools for Excel and free trial Now!


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