Reference a table in Power Query Editor

In Power BI's Power Query Editor, referencing a table means creating a new query that is based on an existing query/table. This is helpful when we want to reuse a table but apply different transformations without affecting the original.

Let’s have the following query (table) named BaseTable in Power Query Editor.

How to Reference a Table in Power Query Editor Option 1: Using the UI (No Code) Step 1: In Power Query Editor, right-click on the existing query (table) in the Queries pane.
Step 2: Select “Reference”.

Step 3: This creates a new query that starts with the results of the original table.
Step 4: We can rename it and apply new transformations independently.

Option 2: Using M Code In the Advanced Editor, we can manually write:

Power Query M

let
    Source = ExistingQueryName
in
    Source 

Here, replace ExistingQueryName with the name of the query (table) we want to reference.

Difference: Duplicate vs Reference