Re: Excel Batch Create, Update, and Upsert

takolota · ‎06-13-2022

Update & Create Excel Records 50-100x Faster

I was able to develop an Office Script to update rows and an Office Scripts to create rows from Power Automate array data. So instead of a flow creating a new action API call for each individual row update or creation, this flow can just send an array of new data and the Office Scripts will match up primary key values, update each row it finds, then create the rows it doesn't find.
And these Scripts do not require manually entering or changing any column names in the Script code.

• In testing for batches of 1000 updates or creates, it's doing ~2500 row updates or creates per minute, 50x faster than the standard Excel create row or update row actions at max 50 concurrency. And it accomplished all the creates or updates with less than 25 actions or only 2.5% of the standard 1000 action API calls.

• The Run Script code for processing data has 2 modes, the Mode 2 batch method that saves & updates a new instance of the table before posting batches of table ranges back to Excel & the Mode 1 row by row update calling on the Excel table.
The Mode 2 script batch processing method will activate for creates & updates on tables less than 1 million cells. It does encounter more errors with larger tables because it is loading & working with the entire table in memory.
Shoutout to Sudhi Ramamurthy for this great batch processing addition to the template!
Code Write-Up: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/resources/samples/write-large-dataset
Video: https://youtu.be/BP9Kp0Ltj7U

The Mode 1 script row by row method will activate for Excel tables with more than 1 million cells. But it is still limited by batch file size so updates & creates on larger tables will need to run with smaller cloud flow batch sizes of less than 1000 in a Do until loop.
The Mode 1 row by row method is also used when the ForceMode1Processing field is set to Yes.

Office Script Code
(Also included in a Compose action at the top of the template flow)

Batch Update Script Code: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kfzd2NX9nr9K8hBcxy60ipryAN4koStw/view?usp=sharing
Batch Create Script Code: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13OeFdl7em8IkXsti45ZK9hqDGE420wE9/view?usp=sharing

You can download the Version 5 of this template attached to this post, copy the Office Script codes into an online Excel instance, & try it out for yourself.
-Open an online Excel workbook, go the the automate tab, select New Script, then copy & paste the Office Script code into the code editor. Do this for both the Batch Update and the Batch Create script code. You may want to name them BatchUpdateV6 & BatchCreateV5 appropriately.
-Once you get the template flow into your environment, follow the notes in the flow to change the settings to your datasources, data, & office scripts.

If you need just a batch update, then you can remove the batch create scope.
If you need just a batch create, then you can replace the Run script Batch update rows action with the Run script Batch create rows action, delete the update script action, and remove the remaining batch create scope below it. Then any update data sent to the 1st Select GenerateUpdateData action will just be created, it won't check for rows to update.

(ExcelBatchUpsertV5 is the core piece, ExcelBatchUpsertV5b includes a Do until loop set-up if you plan on updating and/or creating more than 1000 rows on large tables.)

Anyone facing issues with the standard zip file import package method can check this post for an alternative method of importing the flow: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Cookbook/Excel-Batch-Create-Update-and-Upsert/m-p...

Also be aware that some characters in column names, like \ / - _ . : ; ( ) & $ may cause errors when processing the data. Also backslashes \ in the data, which are usually used to escape characters in strings, may cause errors when processing the JSON.

Thanks for any feedback!

watch?v=HiEU34Ix5gA

RobFol · ‎03-21-2023

by the way I tested this on another list that did not have multiline columns with 8000 records and it worked just fine.

takolota · ‎03-21-2023

@RobFol

I'm really not sure on this one.
There are a few parts of the flow expressions & script that could be messed up on special character combinations in your data like _|- or -#- or _#- or #|# but I don't see those in the data records you have shared.

ExcelGuy_1 · ‎03-22-2023

@takolota Thanks man, this was very useful. I found a way to slightly improve the performance and allow use when many formulas are referencing the table. I did this by moving the updating table to a separate sheet called "data insert" and then referencing it in the original sheet "Data" with "=table1" in cell "A1".

Now the formulas are only calculated when the workbook is opened.

jwilli4380 · ‎03-22-2023

Hello,

I am updating a simple product inventory file, I keep getting the following error for the SelectDestinationIndexCells section. Any suggestion?

InvalidTemplate. The execution of template action 'SelectDestinationIndexCells' failed: The evaluation of 'query' action 'where' expression '@if(equals(mod(item(), 2), 0), if(equals(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[add(item(), 1)], '""'), '_||', if(or(equals(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()], 'PK'), equals(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()], '_|-')), concat('"', outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()], '":"', replace(replace(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[add(item(), 1)], '"', '″'), 'null', ''), '"'), concat('"', outputs('ReformatHeaderObject')[outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()]], '":"', replace(replace(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[add(item(), 1)], '"', '″'), 'null', ''), '"') ) ), '_||' )' failed: 'The template language expression 'if(equals(mod(item(), 2), 0), if(equals(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[add(item(), 1)], '""'), '_||', if(or(equals(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()], 'PK'), equals(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()], '_|-')), concat('"', outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()], '":"', replace(replace(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[add(item(), 1)], '"', '″'), 'null', ''), '"'), concat('"', outputs('ReformatHeaderObject')[outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[item()]], '":"', replace(replace(outputs('CustomDelimitedCells')[add(item(), 1)], '"', '″'), 'null', ''), '"') ) ), '_||' )' cannot be evaluated because property '4' doesn't exist, available properties are 'Handle, Title, Body (HTML), Vendor, Product Category, Type, Tags, Published, Option1 Name, Option1 Value, Option2 Name, Option2 Value, Option3 Name, Option3 Value, Variant SKU, Variant Grams, Variant Inventory Tracker, Variant Inventory Qty, Variant Inventory Policy, Variant Fulfillment Service, Variant Price, Variant Compare At Price, Variant Requires Shipping, Variant Taxable, Variant Barcode, Image Src, Image Position, Image Alt Text, Gift Card, SEO Title, SEO Description, Google Shopping / Google Product Category, Google Shopping / Gender, Google Shopping / Age Group, Google Shopping / MPN, Google Shopping / AdWords Grouping, Google Shopping / AdWords Labels, Google Shopping / Condition, Google Shopping / Custom Product, Google Shopping / Custom Label 0, Google Shopping / Custom Label 1, Google Shopping / Custom Label 2, Google Shopping / Custom Label 3, Google Shopping / Custom Label 4, Variant Image, Variant Weight Unit, Variant Tax Code, Cost per item, Included / United States, Included / International, Price / International, Compare At Price / International, Status'. Please see https://aka.ms/logicexpressions for usage details.'.

takolota · ‎03-23-2023

@jwilli4380

Could you please show some screenshots of your flow run that failed?
Especially of some of the actions immediately before the failed action like SelectArrayOfArraysUpdateData & CustomDelimitedCells...
Example:

Thanks,

leemaa · ‎03-23-2023

Hello!

First of all, thank you so much for sharing this Power Automate code - it has been so useful for me and have been using it every day

I have 2 questions though:

1. How can I make it so that it only updates cells that are empty?

2. How can I make it so that it only updates cells if the source is not empty?

E.g. below will update Sourcing Name and Negotiation

For the first question - if I had the below information and Sourcing Name already contains a value in the final file, how do I continue updating Negotiation but prevent the source value from overwriting Sourcing Name?

For the second question - if the source value for Sourcing Name was blank and there Negotiation contained data, how do I prevent the blank value overwriting the existing data and only have source value containing data update?

takolota · ‎03-23-2023

@leemaa

For the 2nd question, you should be able to use an expression like

if(empty(item()?['Sourcing_Name']), '', item()?['Sourcing_Name']) if it isn't already skipping updates for blanks in the source data.

Your 1st question is tougher and I have to ask if you really need to use a batch update for your scenario as it may be much easier for you to program the logic you specified with some slower looping actions that filter / check if each value is blank in the destination file before writing to it.
It is possible to perform that logic without looping for a destination file with 100,000 rows or less, but it does involve a significantly more complicated action/JSON/expression set-up to allow the GenerateUpdateData Select action to query the destination data set within an expression within one of the Select input table lines.

leemaa · ‎03-23-2023

@takolota

Thank you for the swift reply!

@takolota wrote:
@leemaa

For the 2nd question, you should be able to use an expression like
if(empty(item()?['Sourcing_Name']), '', item()?['Sourcing_Name']) if it isn't already skipping updates for blanks in the source data.

I did try this method as I saw in your notes but it did not work - the blank value in the source data still overwrote the existing data in the final file

See below output I got which overwrote my file:

I used if(empty(item()?['Location/Tracking']),'',item()?['Location/Tracking'])

{
    "body": [
        {
            "PrimaryKey": "31015867-1-1",
            "Updates": "",
            "Location/Tracking": "",
            "Date Stamp": "2023-03-23"
        },
        {
            "PrimaryKey": "31015867-2-1",
            "Updates": "",
            "Location/Tracking": "",
            "Date Stamp": "2023-03-23"
        },
        {
            "PrimaryKey": "31015867-3-1",
            "Updates": "",
            "Location/Tracking": "",
            "Date Stamp": "2023-03-23"
        },
        {
            "PrimaryKey": "31016149-1-1",
            "Updates": "",
            "Location/Tracking": "",
            "Date Stamp": "2023-03-23"
        }
    ]
}

And the below is the output I got in ComposeDestinationJSON (just before script is run)

[
    {
        "73": "",
        "74": "",
        "77": "2023-03-23",
        "PK": "31015867-1-1"
    },
    {
        "73": "",
        "74": "",
        "77": "2023-03-23",
        "PK": "31015867-2-1"
    },
    {
        "73": "",
        "74": "",
        "77": "2023-03-23",
        "PK": "31015867-3-1"
    },
    {
        "73": "",
        "74": "",
        "77": "2023-03-23",
        "PK": "31016149-1-1"
    }
]

takolota · ‎03-23-2023

@leemaa

Sorry, that part got messed up in the V5 update.

Here is a patch...
On "SelectAddRecordBreakToEach" replace the expression in the Map field with...

removeProperty(
addProperty(
addProperty(item(), 'PK', item()['PrimaryKey']),
'_|-', '~'),
'PrimaryKey')

And in "FilterOnlyKeyValueStrings" click edit in advanced mode and replace the filter condition with...

@and(not(equals(item(), '_||')), not(contains(item(), '":""')))

Then in "ComposeDestinationJSON" replace the JSON expression with...

json(concat('[{',
replace(join(body('FilterOnlyKeyValueStrings'), ','), ',"_|-":"~",', '},{'),
'}]'))

Version 5.3 now has these changes

leemaa · ‎03-24-2023

@takolota

Amazing! Once again thank you so much! This has resolved my issue pretty much 🙂