To merge Sales with ExceptionRecords in Dataflow Gen2 such that Sales excludes any records found in ExceptionRecords while preserving query folding, which applied steps should you use?

• A. Merge (inner join) applied step, and then the expand columns applied step
• B. Merge (left anti join) applied step, and then the expand columns applied step
• C. Merge (left anti join) applied step, delete the expand columns applied step
• D. Merge (right anti join) applied step, and then the expand columns applied step

Answer: (B)

Using a left anti join is the right approach because it returns only rows from the left table (Sales) that have no matching row in the right table (ExceptionRecords). This directly filters out any Sales records that appear as exceptions, giving you a Sales dataset with all problematic records excluded.

After performing that merge, expanding columns is used to shape the final output by bringing in the needed fields from the left side (Sales) so you preserve the essential data in the result. This combination also tends to preserve query folding, letting the engine translate the steps back to an efficient source query.

Other options don’t achieve the goal: an inner join would keep records that exist in both tables (not exclude them), and a right anti join would keep rows from the right side that have no left match (the opposite of what you want). Omitting or removing the expand step would fail to present the desired fields from Sales in the output.