Remove Special Characters in Power Query M

Notes

Text.Select keeps only the listed character ranges; add characters like "-" or "_" to the list if you want to keep them.

Requirements

• A table with a text column containing unwanted punctuation or symbols.

How to use this snippet

1. In Power BI Desktop, choose Transform data to open Power Query, then open the Advanced Editor on a query (or start from a blank query).
2. Paste the snippet and replace the placeholder names (tables, columns, file paths) with your own. Check the requirements above first.
3. Run it through the Power Query M Formatter to tidy the layout.

Related Power Query M snippets

• Standardize Phone NumbersStrips formatting from phone numbers and reformats the digits into a consistent (XXX) XXX-XXXX pattern.
• Extract Digits Only from TextRemoves every non-numeric character from a text column, leaving only the digits.
• Remove Extra Spaces Between WordsCollapses repeated spaces inside a text value down to a single space, in addition to trimming the ends.
• Remove Accents from TextReplaces accented characters (é, ü, ñ, etc.) with their plain ASCII equivalents.
• Convert Currency Text to Number ($1,200.50)Strips currency symbols and thousands separators from a text value before converting it to a proper number.
• Split Text by DelimiterSplits a text column into separate columns using a delimiter.

More Power Query M resources

Browse all 145 snippets in the Power Query M Code Snippets, or search the library for something similar to Remove Special Characters.