Power BI loading a CSV file containing data with rich data types, underspecified formatting, improper encoding, and characters often creates problems such as messy text or misplacement of data. Below are some of the approaches to diagnosing the root cause and remedying the situation:
Check CSV File Encoding:
First, how about opening the CSV file with an editor (say Notepad or Visual Studio Code) to inspect the file’s code pages or encoding? Most of the time, the encoding and representation mismatches are responsible for weird letters or texts. If the file is encoded into, for example, UTF-8 with BOM (Byte Order Mark), ANSI, or something similar, then that file may not show properly in the Power BI application. As a solution, attempt to export the CSV file in a UTF-8 encoded format but do not use BOM; this is most likely to be accepted by Power BI.
Define Data Type And Locale in Power BI:
When loading the CSV file into Power BI, select the “Transform Data” option and check the Data Types assigned to each column. Power BI, most of the time, does an accurate guess of the formats except in some instances, especially for dates or numbers. In addition, for each column provided in the CSV file, change the data type, of course, to the correct one, such as Text Date Decimal. Also, that can assist Power BI in understanding country settings; under “File Origin,” the country of the file in question can be stated in the import setting.
Use Power Query to Clean Data:
Within Power Query, check the table’s contents in case of some format issues. The “Replace Values” function can help correct abnormal character sets or signs that may have occurred in the data due to character set translation; also, in cases where the column seems out of place or does not adjust with the respective heading, look into the delimiter configurations in the Power BI application. It is common that such CSV documents are generated with varying spacing arrangements, such as with commas or semi-colons, which can even be managed in Power BI import.
Hence, these steps will at least help when meticulously recompiling the encoding, data types, and delimiters employed or constituted, affecting the desired results and making sure that the CSV records are uploaded well in Power BI.
