Excel PQ not finding table

[jimrward]

historically i have a large data set from which I have created lots of sub queries and everything is working fine
my current issue is as follows
I created a small table on a worksheet with some lookup values and gave it a name PaperCount, this table has a name in column 1 and count in column 2

in one of my existing queries I want to reference this table and pick up the value according to the name and get the value

adding custom columns with
if List.PositionOf(PaperCount[UniqueNames],[SName]) = -1 then 0
else PaperCount[Total]{List.PositionOf(PaperCount[UniqueNames],[SName])}

I keep getting an error "The name PaperCount wasnt recognised"

 

[RoryA]

Did you load the table as a query (or a step in one)? If not, you can't refer to it.

 

[jimrward]

@RoryA , you beat me to it, in trying many things I stumbled blindly and tried loading as connection only and it worked
is it good practice to load all static lookup tables as connection only or does this have performance issues before I go adding in more

 

[RoryA]

If you need to use them, you may as well, since you will have to load them at some point.