Child flow with Manual Trigger: text property exists but error states thast it does not exist. Bug?

[HydrogenUtility]

I access a child flow another flow and pass a basic set of variables as text. Processing the strings in the child flow fails with error "...property 'text_7' doesn't exist..." however it clearly does exist as demonstrated in the screenshots:

  The error message.

Peek code clearly shows the property is available.

Where to from here?

[fchopo]

Hello @HydrogenUtility 

Could you try using the following expression (question mark before ['text_7']) ?:

split(triggerBody()?['text_7'],'<br>')

Hope it helps!

Ferran

[HydrogenUtility]

Thanks very much @fchopo. I actually re-built the child flow from scratch to make it work so cannot (at this time) test your answer. But it seems so obvious to me now you say it.

But...

How do you explain this, being the source of the variable syntax when I write an expression:

Hover on the first instance of 'from' which I placed in the flow using Add dynamic content this morning is reads: triggerBody()['text_5']    ** without the '?'**

Hover on the second instance of 'from' which I placed in the flow using Add dynamic content a moment ago is reads: triggerBody()?['text_5']    ** with the '?'**

I can only replicate dynamic content with '?' but it's plain to see that it's turned up in two different ways previously.

Mystery? Bug?

Thanks for your input!

 

 

[fchopo · Accepted solution]

Hello @HydrogenUtility 

The main difference is that if you don't use "?", Power Automate will thrown an error if the field value is null, but on the other hand, using "?" it will return NULL.

More info: Solved: Difference between item()['key'] and item()?['key'... - Power Platform Community (microsoft....

and here: Solved: Use of Question Mark(?) in expressions - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

I always use "?" to make sure Power Automate won't break if there's a NULL value in any field 😉

Hope it helps!

Ferran

[HydrogenUtility]

Great. That's a good explanation. But I'm still unsure about why the '?' is occasionally present (in prompted entries) and occasionally absent.

Thanks again.