Handling of forms answer - Combining list of data

[PA-Noob]

Hi everyone,

I am really stuck with one flow, any help would be greatly appreciated.

I work with a MS Form and use Power Automate (PA) to break down answers into a MS List.

MS form: It is made out of two questions about an image displayed in the questionnaire.

Q1: What object do you see on the image? (question type: multiple choice)

- Object 1

- Object 2

- Object 3

Q2: How many of these object do you see respectively (comma delimitation required)? (question type: text)

Example of answer submitted by a responder:

Q1, all multiple choices selected

Q2 (text string): 1, 2, 3

Goal: Get PA to work with MS List to create the output:

Note: Because of other automation, I do not want to use Excel.

Responder Name    Object seen   Quantity

Responder A           Object 1         1

Responder A           Object 2         2

Responder A           Object 3         3

My progress:

The MS list is created.

I have a PA flow to clean the data and only use comma delimitation (joint function) for the data and associate each answer to the right field in my MS List. As of now the flow works perfectly, but it creates only one item:

Responder Name    Object seen                               Quantity

Responder A           Object 1, Object 2, Object 3      1, 2, 3

After some online digging, I used "Apply to each" combined with a split function to break the "Object seen" and create one item in MS List for each object. I then got:

Responder Name    Object seen   Quantity

Responder A           Object 1         1, 2, 3

Responder A           Object 2         1, 2, 3

Responder A           Object 3         1, 2, 3

Unfortunately, I cannot do that for the "Object seen" and "Quantity" at the same time while telling PA to pair the respective values of these data list and create the corresponding items in MS List to get the desired output:

Responder Name    Object seen   Quantity

Responder A           Object 1         1

Responder A           Object 2         2

Responder A           Object 3         3

Anyone knows how to do that?

Many thanks for your contribution!

[creativeopinion · Accepted solution]

@PA-Noob You need to convert the text string to an array. Also, you'll need to add an integer variable to your flow. As you loop through each multiple choice selection you will need to increment the variable by one. 

It's important to note that you are relying on users to enter the appropriate number of items they see based on the number of multiple choice options they've selected. If they happen to miss one or include too many, you'll need to account for that in your flow. 

Manual Trigger

First, I would recommend using a manual trigger while you build and create your flow. This way you don't need to leave Power Automate to trigger your flow. Once your flow is ready to go—create a copy of your flow and replace the Manual Trigger with an Automated Trigger. I always keep a manually triggered copy of my flows to help with troubleshooting at a later date or to test out any modifications I'd like to make to my flow.

Response IDs are assigned sequentially. Depending on how many times you've filled out your form, you can enter any number in the Response Id field.

I've added a Compose action to my flow to store the values of the multi-choice and text response from my form. This is optional as you can insert the dynamic content directly into the expressions below. Tip: Rename your actions to keep your flow organized. Especially when you are inserting multiple instances of the same action in your flow.

Multi-choice responses must be parsed. I cover how to do that in this section of my YT Tutorial: How to Get a Microsoft Form RSVP Response into a SharePoint List

Convert the String to an Array

Add a Compose action. Insert an expression and use the split() function. Refer to this section of my latest YT Tutorial to learn more about the split() function. 

Run a test. Review the outputs. It's important to note that if respondents don't include a space after the comma this expression will not split the string.

Get Single Item from Array

To better understand the logic of my proposed solution, insert a Compose action for testing purposes. Insert an expression. Start with a question mark and square brackets.

Between the square brackets enter a number. The number will be the array index of the item you want to return. The index of the first item in an array is 0, second is 1, third is 2 and so on. For testing purposes i'll enter a 1 which will return the second item (the number 😎. 

Place your cursor at the start of the expression by pressing the up arrow key. Insert the output from the Compose action above (the one holding the array of the string).

Run a test and review the output.

You can delete this compose action. It was really to demonstrate the logic for the next part.

Initialize an Integer Variable

Initialize an integer variable and set the value to 0 (aka the index of the first item). 

Loop through Each Multi-Choice Selection

Add an Apply to Each action an insert the output from the Multi-Choice Response. I've inserted the output from the Compose action in my case. If you aren't using the Compose action, insert the expression directly into the Apply to Each action field.

Add a Compose action to output the current item being looped through. This is optional—however this Compose action can help you to troubleshoot your flow and also help you understand what's going on in the flow. 

If the Current Item dynamic content isn't available to select from, insert an expression and use the item() function. 

Run a test. Review the outputs of the Apply to Each action. It should be looping through each multi-choice selection. 

Return the Corresponding Item

Add a Compose action. Insert an expression. Start with a question mark and square brackets.

For the index, we'll use dynamic content—the variable. 

Press the up arrow key to go to the start of the expression. Insert the output from the Compose action storing the Text String which was converted to an Array. This is why it's important to rename your actions—otherwise it makes it hard to keep track of which Compose action has what output.

At the end of the loop, we'll need to increment the variable by 1. Add an increment variable action. Each time it loops through the variable will increment by 1. 

Run a test and review the outputs. I have three multi-choice selections and 3 corresponding numbers. 

This is why I like using Compose actions as the Apply to Each action doesn't output the current item—which is why I'm using the Compose action to output the current item. 

Now you can insert the Create Item action and insert the dynamic content into their respective fields.

You may be interested in these YT Tutorials:

7 Functions You Need to Know | ⚡️Expression Essentials: Part 1⚡️

In the full tutorial I cover 7 functions you need to know when getting started with expressions.

1️⃣ empty()

2️⃣ coalesce()

3️⃣ equals()

4️⃣ if()

5️⃣ concat()

6️⃣ length()

7️⃣ split()

I cover how to use these functions in expressions and I’ll also cover common mistakes when it comes to writing expressions and show you a few tips and tricks along the way.

As a beginner or even an intermediate flow builder—expressions can seem a bit complex at first, I’m going to try to simplify it for you. If you want to level up your flows by writing expressions—keep watching!

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ What is an Expression?

✅ What is a Function?

✅ What Does Wrapping a Function Mean?

✅ How Do I Insert an Expression?

✅ How to Use a Compose action

✅ How to Navigate the Expression Builder with Arrow Keys

✅ How to use the Expression Tooltip

✅ Common Mistakes When Writing Expressions

✅ How to differentiate a null from an empty string

✅ How to Get Dynamic Content When it’s Not Listed

✅ How to Use a Get Item Action to Verify Dynamic Content Output

✅ How to Convert Strings to Lower Case

✅ How to Troubleshoot the if() Function

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5 Power Automate Troubleshooting FAQs and Helpful Tips for Creating Better Flows

In this Power Automate tutorial, I explore 5 frequently asked questions that pop up when troubleshooting a flow. If you’d like to to level up your Power Automate flow skills and learn how to troubleshoot your Power Automate flow—this tutorial is for you!

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ How to troubleshoot a false Condition action result

✅ How to get dynamic content when it isn’t selectable from the list of dynamic content

✅ How to troubleshoot an Apply to Each action that isn’t looping through

✅ How to troubleshoot a skipped Apply to Each action

✅ How to troubleshoot a Filter Query

✅ How to use a SharePoint yes/no column in a Filter Query

✅ How to use Compose actions to troubleshoot a Power Automate flow

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple emails being sent

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple Teams messages being sent

Hope this helps!

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[PA-Noob]

Oh great!

Having worked with Python (a tiny bit), I thought of using a variable, but I had NO idea how with PA.

Thank you for the solution, and the learning opportunity!

It works amazingly!