7.18 Keep / Remove Rows, Sort and Filter

By Ravindra Bagale Last updated: 25 September 2026

Command (Home tab)	What it does	Quick-commerce example
Keep Rows › Keep Top Rows	First N rows	Keep the top 100 rows while testing a big file
Keep Rows › Keep Bottom Rows	Last N rows	Latest 50 rows of a log sorted by time
Keep Rows › Keep Range of Rows	From row X, N rows	Rows 11–60 of a report body
Keep Rows › Keep Duplicates / Keep Errors	Rows with duplicate values or errors	Investigation queries
Remove Rows › Remove Top / Bottom Rows	Drops title or footer rows	Remove 3 title rows (7.3)
Remove Rows › Remove Alternate Rows	Removes a repeating pattern	A PDF-to-Excel export with a blank line after every order
Remove Rows › Remove Duplicates / Blank Rows / Errors	Cleaning	See 7.4, 7.5, 7.15
Sort Ascending / Descending	Orders rows	Sort by Order DateTime
Column filter arrow	Text/Number/Date filters	Date Filters › In the Previous › 12 Months; Text Filters › Does Not Contain "TEST"

Remove Alternate Rows asks for First row to remove, Number of rows to remove and Number of rows to keep. For "order line, blank line, order line, blank line …" use 2, 1, 1.

Top100    = Table.FirstN(Source, 100),
RangeRows = Table.Range(Source, 10, 50),          // skip 10, keep 50
Alternate = Table.AlternateRows(Source, 1, 1, 1),  // offset, skip, take
NoTests   = Table.SelectRows(Source, each not Text.Contains([Customer Name], "TEST"))

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Mitrano, lakshat theva: keeping Top Rows to make the editor faster and then forgetting to remove the step hi classic chuk aahe: the model loads only 100 rows and every total is wrong. Use a parameter such as DevMode for development filtering, or delete the step before publishing. Check the row count in the model after loading. Ghabru naka, don-teen vela kela ki savay hote.

Practice task

Filter the Orders query to remove test orders (Customer Name contains "TEST") and orders before 01-01-2025. Sort by Order DateTime descending and keep the top 20 rows in a duplicate query for a quick check.