Concurrency issues with set variable

[shravanvijay]

I have a flow that goes as below. What I noticed is that the set variables is inconsistent and some variables from Sharepoint 2 is being used in Sharepoint 1 and vice versa, how can I avoid this situation? One way I can think of is to initialize the variables (with different variable names) inside the parallel loop but that will be difficult because I have 15 parallel branches and around 15 variables as well.

[DeepakS]

Hi @shravanvijay ,

Parallel branch or Concurrency block  runs asynchronously so the reference variable may not get the applicable value at the given occurrence.

you may need to run your logic sequentially  or use dedicated variable for each parallel block.

Regards,

DS

[shravanvijay]

Got it! Is there a way to bunch the initialize variables so I can copy paste in each of these parallel branches? (I know scope cannot be used)

[tom_riha]

Hello @shravanvijay ,

you can avoid the situation if you run the branches in sequence, instead of in parallel, or if each branch has their own variables. If you use the same variables in parallel branches it'll be a mess.

Just an idea: if the logic in all the branches is the same, maybe you could initialize an array with the SP sites, and then loop (in sequence) through all the SP sites one by one and apply your logic.

[shravanvijay]

@tom_riha that actually sounds like a wonderful idea, just that I'm new to Power Automate and wouldn't know how to do it! how do I get the sharepoint file properties for multiple document libraries in a loop one by one?

[tom_riha · Accepted solution]

@shravanvijay ,

first, you'll need to initialize 2 array variables with data in the format below. One with Site URLs, 2nd with names of the libraries.

[
   "https://xxxx.sharepoint.com/sites/Playground",
   "https://xxxx.sharepoint.com/sites/Source_site",
   "https://xxxx.sharepoint.com/sites/Target_site"
]

and a 3rd integer variable that will work as an index in the 2nd (libraries) array, set to 0.Then you want 'Apply to each' action with the array of Site URLs as the input, that will process all the sites one by one. But you need to get also corresponding library for the site (1st url, 1st library; 2nd url, 2nd library;...), that's what the index is for. To build an expression that will take the value from the 2nd array in format: array[index], using my variables it'll look as below.

variables('arrayOfLibraries')[variables('index')]

That will give you both inputs for the 'Get files' action: 'Current item' from the 'Apply to each' as Site Address and the expression above (corresponding library) as the 'Library Name'.

Last thing not to forget is to increment the 'index' variable by 1 inside the loop so the 2nd site address uses the 2nd library name. All your logic should be implemented inside this 'Apply to each'.In case you have just 1 library on all the sites with the same name, you can skip the 2nd array variable, the 'index' variable, incrementing the 'index' variable, and just hard-code the library name in the 'Get items' action.