Help in avoiding too many meetings being created by flow

[ahhollan]

I have a flow that looks at a list of courses and registrants and creates a SharePoint row for each registrant. It should then look at the SharePoint list, combine 'Title' and 'Start Date' and only create a Teams meeting for each unique value. In this instance, it is creating 12 meetings instead of 3. Below is my flow. How do I fix this?

[creativeopinion]

@ahhollan I can't get a complete picture of your flow without seeing the top of it. However, from what I can see it looks like you are using a List Rows Present in a table action and looping through each row and running a condition check. Based on whether the condition is true you are creating a new SP Item.

Looping through Each Excel Row

Currently the way you have your flow set up, it's inefficient to loop through each row from your Excel table and run a condition check on each row. You should use a Filter Array action instead. If possible, a filter query in the List Rows Present in a Table action would help make your flow more efficient. The filter query in the List Rows Present in a table action can only take a single condition—you'll still need to use a Filter Array action. 

Get Items Action

I'm unclear on why you have the Get Items action inside the Apply to Each loop. It's best practice to have this action outside of the loop and use a Filter Array action instead. By running this action once outside of the Apply to Each loop and using a Filter Array action instead, you flow doesn't constantly need to fetch the SP items. It will fetch the items once (outside of the loop) and you will use the Filter Array action to filter those items based on the current Excel Row you are looping through.

More Context Needed

If you can expand your actions and upload a screenshot of your full flow it would help to provide more context.

Resources

In the meantime, you might be interested in these YT Tutorials:

Are you using the Microsoft Power Automate Filter Array Action wrong?

In this video tutorial I’ll show you 3 practical ways to use the Filter Array action and how to use it properly.

1️⃣ Cross-Referencing Data

2️⃣ Filtering by Key

3️⃣ Substring Matching

Did you know that the Condition action has a limit of 10 conditions? Although it might look like the Filter Array action can only accept one condition—this is not true. By using the advanced mode you can enter multiple conditions into a Filter Array action with an expression.

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ 3 Ways to Use the Filter Array Action

✅ How to use the Scope Action to Group Actions

✅ How to Check the Number of Items returned from a Filter Array Action

✅ How to Cross-Reference Data in Excel with a SharePoint List

✅ How the Filter Array Action Works

✅ How to Access the Dynamic Content from a Filter Array Action

✅ How to Filter Items by a Key

✅ How to Filter Items by Matching a Substring

✅ How to Use Multiple Conditions in a Filter Array Action

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3 Mistakes YOU 🫵 are Making with the Apply to Each Action in your Microsoft Power Automate Flow

In this video tutorial I’ll go over how to avoid these common mistakes when using the Apply to Each action in a Power Automate flow:

1️⃣ Looping through a Single Item

2️⃣ Creating Unnecessary Nested Loops

3️⃣ Looping through an Unfiltered Array

At the end of the video I share a few helpful insights when it comes to using the Apply to Each action in your flow.

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ How to avoid the Apply to Each action with a single item array

✅ How to use the item() function to access dynamic content in an array

✅ How to prevent unnecessary nested Apply to Each action loops

✅ How to use the Select action

✅ How to convert an array to a string with the Select action

✅How to use the Filter Query field

✅ How to count the number of items in an array

✅ How to use a condition control

✅ How to use the concurrency control

✅ How to set a top count

✅ How to use Compose actions for troubleshooting

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

[ahhollan]

So I switched to a filter array. It is producing output. I added a parseJSON so I could use the individual fields in the Create Item step. However, Create Item is skipping all the outputs and not creating any records.

[creativeopinion]

@ahhollan The ParseJSON isn't necessary. Here's a trick that you can use instead. In the Apply to Each action, insert the value dynamic content from the List Rows present in a table action. Use all the dynamic content from the List Rows Present in a table action. in your Create Item action. 

Once you have all the dynamic content in—delete the value dynamic content from the Apply to Each action and insert the Body output from the Filter Array action. Run a test.

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response!

👉 Level up your Power Automate skills by checking out my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok and Instagram

[ahhollan]

So I used your trick and the flow runs and shows success, but no SharePoint rows were created. AND, the Create Item row is now greyed out. See flow and then flow results below.