Create a gallery from more than one set of comma delimited string

[JamesM]

I am returning three sets of comma delimited strings from Microsoft Flow to PowerApps. I can't return an array or complex object because of the nature of the Respond to PowerApps function. Let's say my three strings like like this: 

australia, germany, usa, new zealand

440,308,349,299

one,two,three,four

Each set of strings will always have the same amount of values in them, so 4, 4 and 4. Is there any way to somehow combine these together to bind to a Gallery? So I can have. 

Gallery Item 1: 

- Australia 

- 440

- one 

Gallery Item 2: 

- Germany

- 308

- two

and so on? I'm hoping there is. (This is all from tryng to get nested XML elements back from Flow to PowerApps in order to build a set of on-screen elements based on the info). 

[JamesM]

The closest I've come is splitting each string and using that split as a column in a new collection, 

Set(offers,GetMemberSisterClub.Run("2701126726055")); ClearCollect(offerNames,Split(offers.offername,","));ClearCollect(offerExpiries,Split(offers.expiry,",")); Collect(
    OfferList,
    {
        OfferName: Split(offers.offername,","),
        OfferExpiry: Split(offers.expiry,",")
    }
)

But it produces columns that have a table inside them, instead of columns of individual values for each row.

[timl]

Hi @JamesM

This might not be the answer you're looking for, but I think it would be easier if you could modify your Flow so that it returns the results in a 'tabular' layout that you can bind to your Gallery.
 

@Mr-Dang-MSFT wrote a great article on how to output JSON from the 'Respond to PowerApps' function in Flow. I think it's worth trying the same technique.

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/return-an-array-from-flow-to-powerapps-response-method/

Also, @ericonline posted a similar question the other week. Perhaps Eric might be able to share how he worked around this issue.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Discussion/Collecting-Part-of-Another-Collection/m-p/211...

[Mr-Dang-MSFT · Accepted solution]

O I love problems like this!

Big idea here is that every nth record lines up among the 3 tables--knowing this is going to help us.

There is no way to unite them out of the box. You'll need to bring them together with a repeated action. And when I think of repeated actions, I think of ForAll().

Below is the formula I'm suggesting:

Clear(joint_collection);

ForAll(any_table,
    Collect(joint_collection,
        {
            column1: Last(FirstN(Split(string1,","),CountRows(joint_collection)+1)).Result,
            column2: Last(FirstN(Split(string2,","),CountRows(joint_collection)+1)).Result,
            column3: Last(FirstN(Split(string3,","),CountRows(joint_collection)+1)).Result...
        }
    )
)

Let's take this apart.

• string1, string2, string3 are the strings that are returned from your flow (offers.__)
• joint_collection is the collection that you want to result by bringing together the respective field from each string
• any_table could be any one of the split strings since it's just used for determining how many times to loop/repeat the actions, ex: Split(offers.___,",")

Clear(joint_collection);

ForAll(any_table,
    Collect(joint_collection,
        {
            column1: Last(FirstN(Split(string1,","),CountRows(joint_collection)+1)).Result,
            column2: Last(FirstN(Split(string2,","),CountRows(joint_collection)+1)).Result,
            column3: Last(FirstN(Split(string3,","),CountRows(joint_collection)+1)).Result...
        }
    )
)

• Red: you already know this part. It's splitting up each string returned from flow.
• Blue: each time these actions run, one more record is added to the join_collection.
  
  So this is getting the first n number of records from the split up strings as a table (FirstN). Last() picks the last of that subset. The Last(FirstN()) pattern gets you the nth record from a table.
  
  It gets the first record from all split strings and puts them into a row (empty collection+1).
  Then it gets a second record from all split strings and puts them into a row (1+1).
• Green: Result is the default name of the column that results when you split up strings. You can wrap the entire thing around with Value if you need it to be a number or Text() if you need to format dates and times, etc.

[JamesM]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all the great responses, including @Mr-Dang-MSFT and @timl. Your suggestions combined with a couple of other threads here allowed me to settle on the following which has allowed me to iterate through each collection and combine them into a single collection for use in the gallery! This is part of what I love about PowerApps, you're unlikely to find many communities as eager to share and collaborate to bring about success for everyone as creators! <3!

Set(
    offers,
    GetMemberSisterClub.Run("2701126726055")
);
ClearCollect(
    offerNames,
    Split(
        offers.offername,
        ","
    )
);
ClearCollect(
    offerExpiries,
    Split(
        offers.expiry,
        ","
    )
);
ClearCollect(
    offerAvailBalances,
    Split(
        offers.availbalance,
        ","
    )
);
ClearCollect(
    offerOpenBalances,
    Split(
        offers.openingbalance,
        ","
    )
);
ClearCollect(
    counter,
    0
);
Clear(Combined);
ForAll(
    offerNames,
    Collect(
        counter,
        Last(counter).Value + 1
    );
    Collect(
        Combined,
        {
            offerAvailBalances: Last(
                FirstN(
                    offerAvailBalances,
                    Last(counter).Value
                )
            ).Result,
            offerOpenBalances: Last(
                FirstN(
                    offerOpenBalances,
                    Last(counter).Value
                )
            ).Result,
            offerNames: Last(
                FirstN(
                    offerNames,
                    Last(counter).Value
                )
            ).Result,
            offerExpiries: Last(
                FirstN(
                    offerExpiries,
                    Last(counter).Value
                )
            ).Result
        }
    )
)

While this is working great, I do look forward to being able to return more complex types from Flow to PowerApps, such as JSON, XML or other easily serializable / de-serializble data formats 🙂  Below is my current UI, the gallery will be the recipient of this data set allowing customers to navigate through their available loyalty offers 🙂  (And yes, the pink is intentional, it's part of the brand 🙂