Linked Records Airtable Power BI, Excel Power Query API integration

[tcsewell3]

I have brought in multiple tables to Microsoft Power Query via Airtable’s API which creates queries for the tables. The issue I have is that all linked records Display [List]. When I click on that field the record appears to be the Record ID for the linked tables Primary Key. I assume that this needs to be extracted and then merged with the corresponding table(s) by the record ID then just expand the column that is actually linked.

Is this the only way and if not is it the most efficient? 

[Sachin_191]

Hey @tcsewell3 

To seamlessly integrate Airtable linked records with Power BI or Excel Power Query, here's an approach that’s both efficient and straightforward:

• When Power Query imports data from Airtable via the API, linked fields are displayed as lists containing record IDs. The best practice is to extract these IDs and join them to the related table by using this record ID as the foreign key.
• After merging tables based on these linked record IDs, you can expand the necessary columns to reveal data from related tables directly within Power Query. This method maintains data integrity and enables easy data refresh.

[ScottWorld]

Ignore the response from @Sachin_191 above. That is a fake AI robot spam account that I have reported to the moderator.

To get values from the linked record in that OTHER table via the API, you can either query that OTHER table separately, or in your CURRENT table, you can create lookup fields to pull in the values that you want to use from that other table into the current table.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld