Extracting a text value from an embedded string value (OCR via attachment)

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

This would be my first post here and one issue has me scratching and pulling all nighters. Its addictive!..

Here are my pics.

I have an email attachment for a pdf which is first fed into a variable (string type)

Then conditioned.

and finally passed trough AI for image recognition. 

The value is then embedded into a string variable.

However now I simply need to get the Text value from here in the above [0] string. It is not an array so I cannot pass it though filter array function. Tried many alternatives with split() function and item()? type as well but of no use. 

From a total of 1200 lines I need to only filter those starting with "text:" values and then append them as an array into a sharepoint file. Just..that..simple 😕

Would be really grateful if some of the experts here can shed some light on to it. Eagerly awaiting your replies!

[VictorIvanidze]

Hi @NR2023,

sorry I do not understand your question.

I've provided an example that illustrates how one can retrieve a text from the output of "Recognize_text_in_an_image_or_a_PDF_document"  action.

Just try to do the same.

[NR2023]

Ahh, my issue is that I can convert the PDF to JSON but I'm having difficulties being able to filter on that data. Apologies.

[VictorIvanidze]

Search here for "Filter JSON object"  and "Filter JSON array".

[NR2023]

I am already utilising these - if you refer to my thread here 

[Anonymous]

@Nived_Nambiar Thank you so much for your help on this. It worked!!...I will accept it as a  solution. (sorry for the delay. I was caught up in an emergency travel)

[VictorIvanidze]

Hi @Anonymous,

could you show your modified flow? 

[Anonymous]

@Nived_Nambiar if you don't mind just a question (since you seem to be the best person across the situation).

Can we select the rows from the array produced?. I want to select a couple of key rows, not necessarily in order?

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @Anonymous 

For selecting specific row, you had to do by indexing method.

may be you can show a sample array and let me know which rows you need to select 

[Anonymous]

Hi @Nived_Nambiar thank you for replying. Below is just a snapshot for where I want to extract the value(s).
These are the numbers--> 2603,5439,205,1397,126610. (the first value comes at around 80, if counting 0). I want to add these with certain headers in excel sheet.

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @Anonymous 

If you know the index where the element is placed, then use index approach and specify the key (number in this case) to get the value 

for example: if the element is at index 4 in the array, for the number 2603, then use the below operation to retrive value corresponding to 2603

variables('array')?[4]?['2603']

where array is variable name for array used in flow.

Hope this helps 🙂

[Anonymous]

hi @Nived_Nambiar Thanks for the input. 
But it's giving the following error:

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @Anonymous 

Have your parsed the json before using select action ?

[Anonymous]

Hi @Nived_Nambiar  what if the value '2603' is dynamic?. Meaning it is changing every time. Then can I simply use index?

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @Anonymous 

if the value is dynamic, if you know that value from flow , then u can store that in variable and pass that variable in key in json for getting value 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi @Nived_Nambiar Can you pls explain with an example in the above case for any one value?

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @Anonymous 

see this

Hope it helps 

[Anonymous]

Thanks @Nived_Nambiar but the value '2163' will keep on changing. How we can extract it without any key?

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @Anonymous 

The logic i would suggest is to utilize the keys in json. First try to get all keys in json array using the approach below

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Power-Automate/Getting-JSON-keys-in-flow/td-p/99743

Once u get the keys u know that that key (in your case  2163) will be always at fixed position, so use the index to find that key and then once key is found, use it in json to get the value 🙂

Hope this helps !

[Anonymous]

Sadly don't know how to do this here via json 😕