LOAD DISTINCT CustomerID, Region RESIDENT Orders;

LOAD DISTINCT in Power BI

LOAD DISTINCT maps to Power Query's Remove duplicates (Table.Distinct) on the selected columns. Two differences matter. Table.Distinct is case-sensitive while the model isn't, and Remove duplicates on a subset of columns keeps one row per key, which isn't guaranteed to be the first one unless you sort and buffer the table first (Table.Buffer). In DAX, DISTINCT() and VALUES() return unique values for calculated tables.

Direct equivalent Power Query DAX

Short answer: Select the columns, then Home > Remove rows > Remove duplicates. To make it case-insensitive, use Table.Distinct(T, {"Key", Comparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase}) so the model doesn't see "duplicate" keys.

What it does in Qlik

LOAD DISTINCT removes duplicate rows from the loaded result. It applies to the whole row of loaded fields, and to every preceding load stacked above it.

Qlik example

Qlik script

Customers:
LOAD DISTINCT CustomerID, CustomerName, Region RESIDENT Orders;

Power BI equivalent

Power Query

Power Query M

= Table.Distinct(Table.SelectColumns(Orders, {"CustomerID", "CustomerName", "Region"}))
// case-insensitive key (what the model will do anyway)
= Table.Distinct(Customers, {"CustomerID", Comparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase})

DAX calculated table

DAX

Customers = DISTINCT ( SELECTCOLUMNS ( Orders, "CustomerID", Orders[CustomerID], "Region", Orders[Region] ) )

Gotchas and behaviour differences

The classic refresh error. "Column 'CustomerID' contains a duplicate value 'abc'" appears on the one side of a relationship when Power Query kept both "ABC" and "abc", or "abc" and "abc ". Remove duplicates case-insensitively and trim first.
Removing duplicates on a key while other columns differ silently keeps one arbitrary row. That differs from Qlik's DISTINCT, which keeps all distinct full rows. Decide which row wins, for example with Group By and Max(Date).

Official documentation

Loading data from a previously loaded table (Qlik Help)
Table.Distinct (Power Query M) (Microsoft Learn)
Working with duplicate values (Microsoft Learn)
DISTINCT (table) function (DAX) (Microsoft Learn)

LOAD ... RESIDENT table; DROP TABLE table; Resident load and intermediate tables A Resident load reads a table already in memory. The Power Query equivalent is a referenced query, but it re-runs its source instead of reading from memory. Heavy multi-step transformations are better done upstream in a warehouse, dataflow or lakehouse. Partial / different approach LOAD ..., Sum(x) RESIDENT t GROUP BY ... Group By in the load script GROUP BY in a Qlik load pre-aggregates a table. Power Query's Group by (Table.Group) is the direct equivalent. In Power BI you often don't need it at all, because measures aggregate at query time. Direct equivalent Count(DISTINCT CustomerID) Count, Count(DISTINCT) and counting key fields Count(DISTINCT Field) maps to DISTINCTCOUNT. Watch out for blanks, for which table you count from, and for the Qlik habit of counting key fields. Direct equivalent Trim(Replace(Name, ' ', ' ')) Replace and Trim Qlik Replace maps to DAX SUBSTITUTE, not DAX REPLACE, which is positional. Trim has a subtle difference. Qlik Trim and Power Query Text.Trim only remove leading and trailing spaces. DAX TRIM also collapses repeated spaces inside the text to one, so the results can differ. Partial / different approach

Spotted an error or a better pattern? QlikToDax is maintained by a working BI consultant; corrections are welcome via the About page. Last reviewed 2026-10-25.