Multiple Merge Queries - what do I do with all the "unwanted" tables?

[btreg]

A bit of a conceptual question.....

I have a main data table in Power Query, plus five other tables that I want to "Merge" with the main table, in order to add additional columns of data.

Every time I run a Merge query between the main table and each of the five other tables, there will be a resulting table which is the original main table plus each new column.

I will therefore end up with six copies of the main table in my model, only one of which I actually want to use.

Does this cause an efficiency problem, having all of these "unwanted" tables in my model? Is there a more efficient approach?

I will want to refresh the model every month, so don't Imagine that I can delete the "unwanted" tables?

 

[GraH]

Simply put. Do not load all tables to the model. Use connection only without any other flag set. The combined table you load to the data model.

 

[btreg]

Simply put. Do not load all tables to the model. Use connection only without any other flag set. The combined table you load to the data model.

Thank you!

 

[GraH]

Welcome.

 

[jdellasala]

Merge has several different methods. Look at the drop down - it explains what it's going to do pretty well.
What you might want instead is Append tables. An Append will tack the data of matching column names to the end of the column, and new columns will be added as needed with the first table's row for the new column set to null.