How to respect the order of the columns after inserting a column in source table

Question

When I append a column to the source table there is no problem. The column appear at the end of PowerPivot worksheet.

But when I insert a column to the source table, after update the PowerPivot, the column does not appear in the correct order but at the end of the worksheet.

Even if I move manually the column to its source order in PowerPivot, when I update, the column returns at the end/last column.

Is there a way to fix this to keep the order of the source table in PowerPivot?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hi Alejandro -

You can just write a query that explicitly orders the columns as you want them.

Hope that helps.

---

Brent Greenwood, MS, MCITP, CBIP
// Please mark correct answers and helpful posts //
http://brentgreenwood.blogspot.com

Answer 2

Hi Brent.

Thanks for the advice but It has not worked. When I "Refresh" the column order is not respected.

Any other suggestions?

Answer 3

Hi Alejandro -

I'm testing the manual ordering (click & drag the new column to the desired slot in the table) in v2 (2012 version), and on refresh the new column order is respected.  Are you on the latest version?

If column order is critical, you could also delete and reimport the table.

---

Brent Greenwood, MS, MCITP, CBIP
// Please mark correct answers and helpful posts //
http://brentgreenwood.blogspot.com

Answer 4

I'm connecting to SQL Server 2005 datasource.

Answer 5

If I reimport the table, I lose all the pivottables users have.

Does anyone from Microsoft has the solution to my problem or there is no solution?

Thank you.