Extract plain text from the body of an email

[Knapster]

Hi, I'm having trouble trying to create a flow that will extract plain text from an email and adding the information to Power BI

I have the link between Flow and Power BI working but im stuck on the expression so I can add the relevant text to the datafield.

The email is already arriving in plain text, example below:

CUSTOMER: Bill Gates

REFERENCE: REF1234

TYPE: Fuel

USAGE: Domestic

QUANTITY: 1250 litres

PRICE: £506.25

I've tried using:  substring(body('Html_to_text'),add(lastIndexOf(body('Html_to_text'),'CUSTOMER '), 10),25)

But I dont need to use the HTML converter as the email body is already plain text

Any help would be appriciated

[efialttes]

Hi!

Let's assume each row is delimited by a new line.  If so, one alternative is to use split function 

split

Splits the string using a separator. For example, this function returns ["a", "b", "c"]: split('a;b;c',';')

If you manage to first identify new line characters (this is the tricky part) you will have each row as an independent element of the output array. Then you need to apply the same strategy per row; but in this case using ":" as the separator.

There are several threads in this community discussing how to identify new line characters, like this one:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Replace-Newline-in-Flow-Expression/m-p/58873

Hope this helps

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Knapster,

Which relevant text do you want to extract from the email body?

Could you please share a screenshot of your flow’s configuration?

I think it is necessary to add “HTML to text” action in your flow, because, Microsoft Flow would get body message as a html format, the screenshot as below:

I assume that you want to extract “Bill Gates” text, I have made a test on my side and please take a try with the following workaround:

 Within Input field of “Compose” action, please type the following formula:

substring(body('Html_to_text'),add(lastIndexOf(body('Html_to_text'),'CUSTOMER'), 10),10)

The flow works successfully as below:

More details about the usage of expression, please check the following article:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-workflow-definition-language

Best regards,

Kris