What Can You Identify About a Column in Power Query Profile?
Short answer
A The pickupLongitude column has duplicate values because its distinct count is less than the profiled row count.
Question
Key Takeaways
Interpreting Power Query column profile statistics reveals that a distinct count lower than the total profiled row count proves the presence of duplicate values.
This page explains how to interpret Power Query column profiling statistics to identify duplicate values in a Fabric dataflow. It establishes that when the distinct count is lower than the total row count, the column contains duplicate values.
Common mistake: Assuming all rows are profiled when the table exceeds the 1,000-row default profiling limit, leading to incorrect assumptions about missing values or unique counts.
Expert Analysis
Why the Answer Is Correct
In Power Query, column profiling provides a "Count" of the evaluated rows and a "Distinct" count of the different values within those rows. If the Distinct count (871) is less than the total profiled Count (1,000), it mathematically guarantees that some values appear more than once, meaning the column has duplicate values.Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option B is incorrect because Power Query only profiles the first 1,000 rows by default for performance reasons, not all 2,000 rows in the table. Option C is incorrect because the profiling statistics for the 1,000-row sample do not indicate any missing values, and we cannot infer missing values for the unprofiled rows. Option D is incorrect because the "Unique" count—which represents values that occur exactly once—is 871, not 935.Community Comment Notes
Commenters correctly pointed out that only 1,000 of the 2,000 rows are profiled by default, making options B, C, and D unverifiable. As one user noted, "Distinct mean: count all the values as 1, even if there was more than one. Unique mean: count only the value that are not repeated". Another user highlighted that "every other answer option cannot be answered for sure since only 1000 values out of 2000 are profiled."Official Reference
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/data-profiling
This link opens the official vendor documentation in a new tab.
Exam Strategy
When analyzing Power Query column profiles, always compare the "Count" to the "Distinct" count to find duplicates. Remember the default profiling limit is 1,000 rows; if the table has more, you must adjust settings to profile the full dataset.
Community Votes
100% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.
Discussion 11 contributions
Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors, not of islever. The comments shown first are the most substantive of the thread — ranked by depth, community endorsement and relevance; expand the list below to read the rest.
From public community threads 11
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nmosq 👍 31 Answered AAnswer A. B - Not all the rows are profiled in the sample (only 1000 of 2000) C- From the column statistics, you don't have any missing values in the sample D- The values that occur only once are 871 (unique count)
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a_51 👍 5 Answered AA We see a count of 1000 (which is the limit by default) we do not know all the data is read, but we can see of the 1000 distinct is less and so we have duplicate values.
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Momoanwar 👍 4 Answered AIts A Only one column selected here No informations about missing values Distinct count not mean exist only once
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gills 👍 3Answer is A Distinct mean : count all the values as 1, even if there was more than one. Unique mean : count only the value that are not repeated in the particular column
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Naqib 👍 2Answer A: Distinct Value: This refers to all different values present in a dataset. When you retrieve distinct values from a column, you eliminate duplicate values so that each value is shown once. For example, if a column contains the values [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3], the distinct values would be [1, 2, 3]. Unique Value: This usually refers to values that appear only once in the dataset. Unlike distinct values, a unique value will only be considered if it has no duplicates at all. For example, if a column contains the values [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3], the unique values would be [1], since only 1 appears without repetition.
Show 6 more comments
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Nefirs 👍 2 Answered AA my reasoning: every other answer option cannot be answered for sure since only 1000 values out of 2000 are profiled. -> B: only 1000 rows are profiled -> C: the column might have missings -> D: there might be more unique/distinct counts.
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b65ecca 👍 2 Answered ADifficult to say if BCD are correct since we only see 1000 rows and not all columns. One thing is for sure though, there are columns that have values that occur more than once.
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stilferx 👍 2 Answered AIMHO, it is A, well explained below
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a_51 👍 1 Answered AA is Best choice based on the picture.
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NRezgui 👍 1 Answered AThe column has duplicate values.
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Rakesh16 👍 1 Answered AThe column has duplicate values
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