Power Query SDK for Visual Studio

The previous post regarding the M extension for Visual Studio Code failed to acknowledge another relatively new alternative we have for M queries:

Power Query SDK for Visual Studio

1. Per the image above you can find and install the SDK in the Visual Studio Marketplace (from VS 2015 or 2017).
2. You can then create a new Power Query project:

   

3. At this point, a solution and a project is created that can contain multiple (.pq) files:

A couple other points:

• The SDK supports (pq) files only whereas the VS Code extension supports (.m), (.M), (.pq), and (.PQ) file extensions.
  • Thus, for compatibility between the tools, save the queries as (.pq) files

• The SDK includes M language Intellisense (all the M functions) whereas the VS Code extension (as of v 1.0.0) only has Intellisense for the existing terms in the file.

Given the Intellisense advantage and the familiar Visual Studio experience (e.g. add existing item) I’ll probably go with the Power Query SDK for Visual Studio for now. That said, I think VS Code has a bright future in contributing to data and BI projects.

Thanks to Olivier Travers for pointing this out earlier today.