PL-300 Prepare the data Practice Question
You are cleaning data in Power Query. A column contains customer names with inconsistent capitalization (e.g., 'john smith', 'JANE DOE'). You need to standardize the names to proper case (first letter uppercase, rest lowercase). Which transformation should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse 'Capitalize Each Word' with 'Uppercase' or 'Lowercase', thinking any casing transformation will suffice, but only 'Capitalize Each Word' produces the specific proper case format required.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use 'Format' > 'Capitalize Each Word'.
The 'Capitalize Each Word' transformation in Power Query converts the first letter of each word to uppercase and the rest to lowercase, which is exactly what proper case requires. This is the correct choice because it directly addresses the need to standardize inconsistent casing (e.g., 'john smith' becomes 'John Smith', 'JANE DOE' becomes 'Jane Doe').
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use 'Format' > 'Trim'.
Why it's wrong here
The 'Trim' command in Power Query removes leading and trailing whitespace such as spaces, tabs, and line breaks from text values, but it never alters letter casing. For example, the value ' jOHN smith ' would still contain the same mixed-case letters after trimming; only the outer spaces would disappear. Because the requirement is to change case to proper case, this option only addresses spacing, not the actual character casing, so it cannot produce the desired result.
- ✓
Use 'Format' > 'Capitalize Each Word'.
Why this is correct
Selecting 'Format' > 'Capitalize Each Word' applies the M function Text.Proper to the entire column, which converts the first character of every word to uppercase and all other characters to lowercase, yielding values like 'John Smith'. In Power Query, this operates as a built-in transform that adds a new applied step for the selected column, and it recognizes spaces, punctuation, or any non-letter character as word boundaries. This is the correct choice for converting customer names from inconsistent mixed case into a readable proper-case format for a report.
- ✗
Use 'Format' > 'Lowercase'.
Why it's wrong here
The 'Lowercase' transform invokes Text.Lower, which forces every character in the selected column to its lowercase variant. If a customer's name is 'JOHN SMITH' or 'John Smith', the result will consistently be 'john smith', with no uppercase letters at all. Since proper case requires an uppercase initial on each word, this option strips away the necessary capitalization and therefore fails to match the formatting goal.
- ✗
Use 'Format' > 'Uppercase'.
Why it's wrong here
The 'Uppercase' transform applies Text.Upper, which converts every letter in the column to its uppercase equivalent, so 'John Smith' becomes 'JOHN SMITH'. Unlike proper case, which only capitalizes the first letter of each word and lowercases the rest, this option makes all characters uppercase. While uppercase may be appropriate for certain data elements, it overcapitalizes the names and does not meet the requirement for clean, properly cased customer data.
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