In excel, how do you properly mix 'manual' data and imported data in a sheet / data range?
Requirement
For context, my particular use case is a sort of bare-bones data "triage" tool in excel.
Ideal workflow would be:
- Import data (e.g a CSV file containing data to manually review)
- Bonus: define a key for the imported data
- Append column(s) to that file (e.g. Status, Notes)
- Manually fill out the new columns (triaging the imported data)
- Refresh the data import (to see how the data output changed after taking some actions due to findings)
- At this point, the manually entered data should stay with the same row it was entered for (by key)
Problem
I've tried doing this in excel with a power-query based import (created via Data > From Text/CSV). But after re-import the manually entered values are no longer positioned on the same row.
Background
I assume this has something to do with the External Data Properties popup, which has the options beginning with:
- Insert cells
- Insert entire rows
- Overwrite existing cells
I assume the 'entire rows' option should be selected. I had the 'insert cells' option selected and I can see how that may have gone horribly wrong. This error makes me question the method all-together.
Overall Robustness
The ideal solution would:
- Have a user-defined 'key' column or columns in the imported data.
- Remove entire rows (including the manually-entered data) for keys that no longer exist in the import.
...but I would be willing to settle for limitations in process that can achieve the same effect - understanding exactly how excel decides to put the data in the import.
So the related question would be:
When we use 'insert entire rows', how does excel behave?
I did found some Microsoft docs:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/manage-external-data-ranges-and-their-properties-0091ae04-dfcb-44fc-ad47-3b16844e8173
(-see 'Specify how new data is added to an external data range'). It does not define how it correlates imported rows with the existing sheet, yet it seems to tosomething... is this behavior well defined or shall we just say "here be dragons"?
(I'm using Office 365 version 1909)