How to fix Power Query unknown identifier error

If you have had the following error in Power Query it can be quite annoying to work out what is causing it

Expression.Error: There is an unknown identifier. Did you use the [field] shorthand for a _[field] outside of an 'each' expression?

Normally this error is caused because an each keyword was accidentally deleted from a filter or new column.

_{Normal correct function}

_{Erroneous function}

So to fix this you need to open the advanced editor and check the Power Query code is not missing an each.

Removing the each keyword breaks this as each is telling Power Query to apply the logic to each row/item. You can read more about this here or for a deeper dive I recommend Ben Gribaudo’s Power Query Primer.

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