Convert names to email address

[MrtnM]

Hi,

I am in the beginning of building a FLow that (among other things) is going to create an email address from name fields, using

concat(replace(items('Apply_to_each')['Fornamn'],' ','.'),'@',items('Apply_to_each')['Domain'])

This expression only gets info from column Fornamn, inserts a dot instead of space, and inserts an @ and adds the info from column Domain. This is all right.

But my issue is that 

1. first name and surname are in different columns, and
2. first names and last names may contain the letters å, ä or ö, and also spaces

How do i tweak this expression to create fornamn.efternamn@mydomain.com, from this:

This is my configuration:

[abm]

Hi @MrtnM 

You could concat using firstname, '.',  lastname, '@', domain. This will give you an email address. Then use a replace expression to remove the unwanted characters.

Thanks

[v-alzhan-msft]

Hi @MrtnM ,

Please take a try with expression below:

concat(replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['First'],' ','.')
,'.'
,replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Last'],' ','.')
,'@'
,replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Domain'],' ','.')
,'.com'
)

Best regards,
Alice       
 
Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[MrtnM]

Thanks @v-alzhan-msft 

Is there a way to replace uppercase letters with lowercase in the output of Compose? I tried to use tolower, but I couldn't find a way to enter the output of Compose into the expression.

[abm]

Hi @MrtnM 

Try expression  toLower(outputs('Compose-email'))

Thanks

[v-alzhan-msft]

Hi @MrtnM ,

The same as @abm ,

toLower(outputs('Compose-email'))

If your problem has been solved, please go ahead and mark the post as solved by clicking “Accept as Solution” so that this thread will be marked for other users to easily identify!

Best Regards,

Alice

Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[MrtnM]

@v-alzhan-msft , thanks, that worked just perfectly!

However, I still have an issue with the charachter replacement: when thinking about it, it is not just å, ä, and ö that a name may contain, also é, and even ü and ç could be a part of a name. To create one replace for each letter is a difficult thing to do - is there a way to convert the words into "latin alphabet", or something like this?

[v-alzhan-msft]

Hi @MrtnM ,

Sorry for I'm afraid that there is no any solutions for this issue.

Best Regards,

Alice

Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[MrtnM]

@v-alzhan-msft ok, I'll have to deal with it.

But I do not seem to get it right, I try to add information to the expression you provided earlier, but it doesn't work for me.

I'd like to use

concat(replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Fornamn'],' ','.'),'.',replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Efternamn'],' ','.'),'@',replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Domain'],' ','.'))

but also add several replace for other letters, some of them being å->a; ä -> a; ö -> o; é -> e and so on.

I do not understand how I should add this to the expression?

(I will use this after the toLower expression, so it is "only" the undercase letters I need to replace)

[MrtnM]

@v-alzhan-msft Would you give me a hint how to add more replace actions to this?

[abm]

Hi @MrtnM 

Declare an array and set all the special characters. Iterate the array and do a replace. Finally do the concat to construct the format (email) you want.

Thanks

[MrtnM]

Thanks,

I am sure you're right about that, but I do not understand it at all ...

I was starting to create a Compose replace action for every letter, and that works, but takes a lot of effort ... that's not way to do it, I guess.

[abm]

Try the below steps

Above replace the array values with your special characters.

Inside the loop you need to add another compose and use the replace expression function to replace (your variable first, lastname) with each item then add another action to set the variable value (first, lastname) from the previous compose output.

Hope it make sense.

Thanks

[MrtnM]

Hi, 

thanks

I got an error from the Initialize array, it only allows "String" it said, so I changed that. Will it still work?

Also, the "Item" is automatically changed to "Current item", butr maybe that's ok, too?

And the last part of your answer I do not follow (again, sorry):

Inside the loop you need to add another compose and use the replace expression function to replace (your variable first, lastname) with each item then add another action to set the variable value (first, lastname) from the previous compose output.

I am not very familiar with expressions (understatement), so I am a little confused here. I do not know how to write this.

concat used is concat(replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Fornamn'],' ','.'),'.',replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Efternamn'],' ','.'),'@',replace(items('Apply_to_each')?['Domain'],' ','.'))

This is the entire Flow right now

[abm]

The array initialise could be related to special characters. I will post something soon.

Thanks

[abm · Accepted solution]

Hi @MrtnM 

As promised here are the steps you need to follow.

Here I am showing only Firstname as an example.

My Firstname value is "åbbbbaaaaööåå" and I expect the result as below:

AbbbbaaaaCCAA

Note: Below Replace Character Step contains each characters we want to replace with. Use the same index/order as Special Characters. So if your first special character is "å" then use "A" for Replace Character.

Next we need to iterate each special characters and replace the relevant value using Replace Character Array.

For iterating the array I am using Parse JSON action step to get each item.

The above schema is as follows:

{

"type": "array",

"items": {

"type": "string"

}

}

Next we need to use an index to get each special character from the array for replacement.

Add the For Each loop for reading each special character then use the replace expression to replace the special characters and assign it in same variable. Same time increment the index after each iteration. See below.

Above I am using the below expression for replacing special characters under "Compose - Get Each Special Character" step.

replace(variables('FirstName'),outputs('Compose_-_Get_Each_Special_Character'),variables('ReplaceCharacters')[variables('Index')])

Finally outside the loop I am using a compose to display the Firstname which is our final result.

Here is my output.

Do the similar technique for LastName as well. Declare another variable called LastName. Then use the same For Each loop to include the LastName for replacing special characters.

Finally you can use a concat to replace FirstName, LastName and Domain to construct your email address.

Hope it make sense. If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks

[MrtnM]

Thanks again for all the effort you put into this! That worked neatly - however, when trying this live, I ran into an issue:

I need the first and last names to be added with dynamic content. This creates an Apply to each, which creates an error, and later in the flow, it is also not possible to use the Firstname in the "Set variabe Firstname" action. How do I solve this?

[abm]

Hi @MrtnM 

Move the initialise step above the for each loop. Then use Set Variable to assign the value. This is by design. Yes it is a bit misleading I agree.

Thanks

[MrtnM]

Like this? Doesn't work.

[abm]

Yes that's correct. Then inside the loop you need to use set variable (Action step) and map the value.