Define variable after filtering data for sending email

[ursanil]

1. Building a flow to trigger an email based on MS Form

2. User details are searched by a field in the form

3. Some users have two email id one is having old text in the email id 

4. Requirement to filter/get the email id that does not have the word Old in the email id

5. Use that email id to send emails by sendan email (V2)

Error

trying to define the variable and then filter. please suggest if other methods can be applied to get the requirement. 

[rzaneti]

Hi @ursanil ,

I see that you are initializing a variable inside an 'Apply to each' loop. Power Automate does not allow it (in my account, it even prevents to create this action inside the loop): you have to initialize your variable out of the loop and then set the value inside the loop, like in the image below:

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional help!

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[ursanil]

yes, but when I am selecting the value (dynamic field from the search for user), the apply reach is automatically coming back.

the complete flow:

1. MS form, the respondent adds the name

2. by name email id getting searched

3. if a person have two email id one which don't have "Old" text in the email id needs to be picked for firing email

[rzaneti]

When you try to get details from the user, the connector returns an array (value) with all the records found. Even if your request resulted in a single result, the 'value' still will be an array (in this case, with 1 element). 

This is the reason why Power Automate is generating the 'Apply to each' automatically when you try to access the 'Email' form the user: it is looping the 'value' array and getting the email for each element (even if you have only one element).

If your 'value' is supposed to have only one record, you can directly access the email array of this single record the expression first('Action'['body/value'])['Email']. If you need help to build this expression, please share the output of your action where you get the user details.  

[ursanil]

This is applicable and working with person having one email ids. the problem with the person having two email ids for example a person with name having two email ids

1. abcd@xyz.com

2. abcd@xyzold.com

my requirement is to discard the second and pick the 1st one to send an email. Now by searching email id from the person's name (abc) resulting two email ids and two emails are getting fired

[rzaneti]

Is your 'Email' output always an array or it can be a string when your user has only one email? 

If yes, you can use the expression mentioned below to capture it: the 'first' is referring to the 'value' attribute, and no to 'Email'

If it depends on the quantity of emails, you can:

1. Add a conditional to check the length of 'Email'. The expression can be used either for strings or arrays and apparently in your business case the user can have 1 or 2 email addresses only: so if the length is different from 2, it is a single email. Expression: length(Action...['Email']). 

2. If it is a string, you can directly use it for you 'Send email' action.

3. If it is an array, you can use an 'apply to each', and insert another condition inside it, to check if the element ends with the substring '@xyzold.com'. If the condition is false, you set the element to a variable to be used in your 'Send email' action. endsWith expression:  endsWith(item(), '@xyzold.com'). Notice that this approach will just ignore the '@xyzold.com' email, sending it only to the updated one.

Let me know if it works for you.

[ursanil]

Almost done:

step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Its correctly identifies the email id but, but since the pers has two email id now the email getting fired twice to the correct email id. let me which step I need to insert the condition. the complete expression will help.

[rzaneti]

Hi @ursanil ,

Where exactly did you place your 'Send email' action? If it is placed right after the 'Get user profile' (inside the 'Apply to each'), you can try to move both actions (Get profile and Send Email) inside the 'If yes' block.

If it not works, please share an image of your flow structure containing the 'Send email' action. 

[ursanil]

some other steps also involved to get the MS form data:

next Step :

in the to field i am expecting the email id being identified as the variable name email id (which don't have old word)

thanks for the help so far

[rzaneti · Accepted solution]

Hi @ursanil ,

Your 'Send email' action is inside a loop, as you apparently need it to populate the 'displayName' field after your 'Regards'. Because it is inside the 'apply to each', it will run as may times as the quantity of elements that you have inside the 'value' array (2 for those users that have an old email).

As a solution, I recommend you to capture the 'displayName' inside the same 'condition' where you pull the correct email address and store it into a variable. In the 'Send email' action, instead of insert the 'displayName' dynamically from the 'Get user' action, you now will populate with the variable.

By doing this, the 'apply to each' won't be necessary anymore (make sure to move your action from out of there before test it) and you will be able to run your 'Send email' action out of any loop, preventing the duplicated sending. 

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional clarification about this process!