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Anonymous
Not applicable

NEED HELP: MultiSelect Lookup Field Arrary

Good Afternoon. I have been struggling to get a Flow working for a week, primarily due to a number of multi-select lookup columns. Here is what I am trying to do:

1) Get Items from a SharePoint List

2) Add rows to a table in Excel 

 

I would like to take the Lookup Column called Theme and store the various values (text values) in the Theme Column in the table separated by a semicolon.  Here are the steps in my flow:

  1.  Get Items from SharePoint List
  2.  Initialize variable: Theme Type: Array
  3.  Append to Array ? 
  4.  Add row into Excel Table 

So I get stuck on Step 3 and can not get going. I am not sure how to append to the Array the values from Theme. Also, if I append the values to the array it would seem that I can not access that array in the "Add Row into a Table" in Excel for the Theme field. Any assistance would greatly appreciated! 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @abm 

 

I was able to get everything working. A lot of it had to due with where I was positioning the Append to String. Once I inserted in the Loop of the Add Row to Excel it worked perfectly. Your logic helped me a lot in getting things working correctly. Here is what I did: 

  1.  Initialize String Variable
  2. Apply to Each (Select Multiselect SP List Field)
  3. Append to the String variable (MultiSelect.Value) with a delimiter after, I used a semicolon
  4. Add Row to Excel with Populated String Variable
  5.  Set Variable to Null and Loop Through Again

Solution.PNG

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12
abm
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi  @Anonymous 

 

I had a similar flow and here are the details. Ignore the variable name and data structure I am using here. You will get the idea of what you need to implement.

 

Instead using the array you can do the following. 

 

1. Declare a string type variable

 

image.png

2. Add a compose statement

 

image.png

 

Above I am using an IF expression to determine whether I need a comma or not. So for the very first result I don't need a comma.

 

The expression I used is as follows:

if(greater(length(variables('SingleChoiceJSON')), 0), ',''')
 
Next append the compose output to string
 
image.png

Finally you can use the string variable directly in your excel column.

 

Thanks



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Anonymous
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Hi @abm,

 

Thanks for the quick reply.  So I applied the logic that you suggested and it did successfully get the values into Excel. Thank you! The issue though is that it appears that it is inserting the entire string into each cell for 200 plus lines. Should this step be in the Add a row into a Table? Or is there something else, I am doing wrong. Again thanks again for your help! Just seeing data getting into Excel gets me happy!

 

Thematic.PNG

Excel.PNG

abm
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @Anonymous 

 

How would you like to add this in your Excel Row? I thought you need this as a one string. Could you please explain so that I could provide the solution?

 

Thanks



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Anonymous
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Hi @abm I do need it in one string. Right now it just appears to be sticking all the values in each cell. Let me provide a better example. 

 

Below is what the data in the SharePoint List looks like. Note: Theme is the Lookup column and is multi-select:

 

IDTheme 
1Theme_A
Theme_A; Theme_B; Theme_C
3Theme_C

 

So what is happening when the rows are added to Excel :

IDTheme

1

 

Theme A; Theme A; Theme B; Theme C; Theme C

 
2Theme A; Theme A; Theme B; Theme C; Theme C
3Theme A; Theme A; Theme B; Theme C; Theme C

 

So it looks like it is repeating  all values for all rows in each row in Excel. Perhaps this has to do with the order of my Flow. 

abm
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @Anonymous 

 

Once you add the first row of values into excel then initialise your string values using Set variable to null.

 

What's happening now is once you insert the first row you are not  resetting the variable to empty string.

 

Thanks



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Anonymous
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Hi @abm . So I tried the below and it eliminated the repeating rows in the other cells. However, it only populated the first row. I tried  the following below, however that is creating duplicating rows for any item in the SharePoint list that would have two values in the Theme Category. This flow is really giving me a challenge with these multi-select fields. I am not exactly sure how to lay it out proper. Thanks again. 

 

FlowInloop.PNG

abm
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @Anonymous 

 

Are you looking to get the results as below?

 

1 Theme_A
Theme_A; Theme_B; Theme_C
3 Theme_C

 

 

What you getting now?

 

Thanks



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Anonymous
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I want results exactly like the below. Right now I am getting a row for each value, so for the case of 2, I would have a row for Theme_A, Theme_B, Theme_C. 

 

abm
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @Anonymous 

 

I think the issue you having is the below two rows are within the same loop of Apply to Each 5.  

 

Can we do a screenshare?

image.png



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abm
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @Anonymous 

 

Have a look in your run history steps. This will give you an idea which step is in the wrong loop. 

 

The ideal logic you are looking is first construct the comma separated values. So this will be in a loop and then outside the loop add row excel, re-initialise variable.

 

Thanks



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Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @abm. I am going to try some of what you mentioned this evening. Will try what you suggested and will post and update of my results. Thanks again for your help! 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @abm 

 

I was able to get everything working. A lot of it had to due with where I was positioning the Append to String. Once I inserted in the Loop of the Add Row to Excel it worked perfectly. Your logic helped me a lot in getting things working correctly. Here is what I did: 

  1.  Initialize String Variable
  2. Apply to Each (Select Multiselect SP List Field)
  3. Append to the String variable (MultiSelect.Value) with a delimiter after, I used a semicolon
  4. Add Row to Excel with Populated String Variable
  5.  Set Variable to Null and Loop Through Again

Solution.PNG

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