Copy and Paste Queries Across Workbooks Using Power Query

Power Query or Get & Transform (In Excel 2016) lets you perform a series of steps to transform your Excel data.  One of the steps it allows you to copy an existing query from one workbook to another workbook! If you want to reuse a query, this is perfect as you will not need to redo the steps anymore.

Key Takeaways

• Easily Transfer Queries – Power Query allows you to copy queries from one workbook to another, avoiding the need to recreate them from scratch.

• Use the Query Editor for Copying – You can copy queries directly from Power Query Editor, ensuring all transformations and steps remain intact.

• Maintain Connections to External Data – When pasting queries, Excel will prompt you to reconnect data sources, making it easy to adapt queries to new workbooks.

• Export and Import Queries – You can export a query as a .OQY file or use the “Load To” option to transfer queries efficiently.

• Reusability Saves Time – Copying queries helps maintain consistent data processing rules, improving efficiency and reducing errors.

The Data Setup

We will use the existing workbook from this tutorial of splitting dates. It splits the Order Date into Year, Month and Day.

We want to reapply this same exact query to our other workbook with this data:

STEP 1: Open the workbook with the existing query.

Go to Data > Get & Transform > Show Queries

 

STEP 2: In Workbook Queries, right click on the Table1 Query and select Copy.

 

STEP 3: Jump over to the workbook that does not have this query yet.

Go to Data > Get & Transform > Show Queries

 

STEP 4: In Workbook Queries, right click on the pane and select Paste.

You can now see the same query applied now without even creating the steps manually!

The order date for this table as well has been split to Year, Month and Day!

 

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I copy a Power Query from one workbook to another?
Open Power Query Editor, right-click the query in the Queries pane, select Copy, then open the target workbook, open Power Query Editor, and click Paste.

Will the copied query keep its data source?
The structure of the query remains the same, but you may need to reconnect or adjust the data source settings in the new workbook.

Can I copy multiple queries at once?
Yes! In Power Query Editor, hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac), select multiple queries, then copy and paste them into another workbook.

What if my new workbook doesn’t recognize the data source?
You’ll need to go to Data Source Settings in Power Query and update the connections to match the new workbook’s file paths or database sources.

Is there another way to transfer queries besides copying?
Yes! You can export queries as a .OQY file or use the “Load To” option to create reusable connections across multiple workbooks.