Applies ToExcel for Microsoft 365 Excel 2024 Excel 2021 Excel 2019 Excel 2016

You can rename a column header to make it more clear. You can only rename one column at a time. 

Note    To prevent a column name conflict from other commands that create column, Power Query disambiguates by creating a unique name. In these cases, you often want to rename them. But table column names must be unique for all columns. Renaming a column to a column name that already exists creates an error.

  1. To open a query, locate one previously loaded from the Power Query Editor, select a cell in the data, and then select Query > Edit. For more information see Create, load, or edit a query in Excel.

  2. Select a column, and then select Transform > Rename. You can also double-click the column header.Renaming a column header

  3. Enter the new name. 

Renaming a column header in Power Query doesn’t rename the original data source column header. Avoid renaming the column header in the data source because it can cause query errors. But it’s possible someone else could change the column header in an imported external data source. If this happens, you can receive the error:

“The column '<column name>' of the table wasn't found.”

To correct the query error, select Go To Error in the yellow message box, and correct the formula in the formula bar. But proceed carefully. Whenever you change a previous step under Applied Steps in the Query Settings pane, subsequent steps might also be affected. To confirm your fix, refresh the data by selecting Home > Refresh Preview > Refresh Preview.

See Also

Power Query for Excel Help

Rename columns (docs.com)

Promote a row to column headers

Add or change data types

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