Power Automate | Apply to Each | Why? | Arrays and Objects

This video demonstrates how to use Power Automate to work with arrays and objects from SharePoint lists. It covers the concepts of get item, get items, apply to each, select, join, and expressions. It also shows how to avoid or understand common errors and how to manipulate data efficiently.

[00:00:00] The purpose and overview of the demonstration
To show how to avoid or understand apply to each
To use expressions, select, and join actions
To work with people pickers and multiple choice fields

[00:00:41] The SharePoint list and its columns
A list of 10 items with various columns
Industry column is a choice type with multiple selections
Account manager column is a people picker with multiple selections

[00:01:37] The get item and get items actions
Get item returns a single item from a list
Get items returns a table of data from a list
The output of each action and how to examine the JSON

[00:03:54] The apply to each and compose actions
How to use compose to output dynamic values
How to use apply to each to loop through an array
How to examine the expressions and understand the syntax

[00:06:35] The variable and append to string actions
How to use variable to store a string
How to use append to string to add values to the string
How to compare the efficiency of variable vs select

[00:08:12] The select and join actions
How to use select to filter an array and output only the values
How to use join to combine the values of an array into a string
How to avoid the extra semicolon at the end of the string

[00:11:46] The first expression and integer indexes
How to use the first expression to get the first object from an array
How to use integer indexes to get a specific object from an array
How to avoid the error of selecting values from an array

[00:15:46] The industry column and multiple choice values
How to use the industry column as an input to an apply to each or a select
How to use the value key to get the values of the multiple choice field
How to use the join expression to create a string of the values

Other JSON related videos:

[markweyman]

Thanks for covering this topic, it’s something I often struggle with and will be bookmarking this so that I can go back over the lessons you’ve covered today.

[ashishkn]

I love you! This is exactly I was looking for! Thank you!

[munkybutler]

Brilliant video Damo, makes things a lot clearer. I will be bookmarking this 😊

[einfachmachengmbh]

Great Video! Gave me a good understanding preventing some annoying Loops. Thanks Damien!

[patrick]

Excellent! I really like how you're focusing on Power Automate topics. Very helpful (and I am subscribed🙂)!

[GaryCarmen]

I will be sharing this video with our Power Automate users. Great video, thanks Damien

[emmanuelmaceda]

Great vid as usual! I also rarely use the Join data operation because often times, the requirement is to return unique values from an array. I use the join in conjunction with union to perform such tasks. Have a great weekend!

[pauljoneseyboy]

fantastic quality content, thanks so much it helped a lot

[clayjames]

This is a super helpful video. I was having difficulty with multiple value people columns and incorporating them in power automate. For example, I couldn't get it to send just one email to the multiple people as recipients listed in the item column.

[kathleencarrao]

Thank you so much, it helped me a lot!!

[qmkfkog]

thank you for the video! my questions is how can I take from value in jeson file, when I dont have dynamic function "value"? unfortunately our SharePoint using library, not list. I use "get file properties" "when an item or file is modifie" because Cant use "get item(s)"

[Wzxxx]

Thank You so much. I do Power BI stuff but sometimes Automate is helpful but absolutely counter intuitive for a user. All of my collogues just resign for using it. Simple ideas take hours to implement without a real knowledge. Simple task and you need to know the language which is not explained anywhere. All these ?, () and strange code. Need to build some iteration in order to GET items from API. Nice tutorial. After all tutorials from You it will be much easier to go through that nightmare.

[adamtravers]

Awesome video this has just helped me so much

[djjamba]

Fabulous video!
Is there a way to use the same technique but for multiple records (Get ItemS) and not just one person column from one record (Get Item)?
i.e. do you know if there's a way of plucking out a single column from an array of objects that's already inside the Select with a bunch of other mapped values?

[fredericnicholson]

Thanks for this video. I encountered one trouble maker for apply each: List files in folder! any tips on how to approach these two together?

[StephanOnisick]

Great Explanations. One Question: When I am doing a test and I don't want to go through the entire number of items, how do I create a variable that only gets a few items of that value array?

[ChrisTsafos]

Thanks for putting this together! My brain hurts.😅

[niclaatz]

I would really love to see a video on how to append existing file names in SharePoint if the filename already exists. I am really struggling with this, and I just want to append the file name with (1), etc. like Windows does.

[PUNITHBG]

Is there any to get all multiselect people value through expression other than integer method or apply toeach?

[geralddahl]

Thx for covering index by integer and array issues. I’m sure you’ve done this, namely, handling nulls?