Turning string into expression

[valex]

Since I haven’t the solution nowhere withing the community, I have to post this as a new topic.

Namely, I have a SharePoint list that serves as a business trip form, with columns Employee1, Employee2… up to Employee10. The intention is to generate 10 Word documents per SP item (for every employee on that trip) via Power Automate.

In order not to create 10 “Create file” actions, I thought to put them in “Do until” loop where I have

• int variable called “EmpNo” that increases at the end of the loop,
• string variable “EmpField” that is concatenated string “Employee”, “EmployeeNo” and “.Value”, producing results like “Employee1.Value”, “Employee2.Value”, etc, and
• string variable “EmpName” that uses the expression to get field result, which I will use in the output document

As the expression in "EmpName", I have tried

formDataValue('Get_item',variables('EmpField'))

but when trying to save the flow I get “The template function 'variables' is not expected at this location” error.

I have tried several other variations, like

outputs('Get_item')?[concat('body/',variables('EmpField'),'/Value']

of course, setting the variable without “.Value” at the end, but it won’t accept the expression.

I have tried several other things, like “parameter” expression using result from Compose action, but with no results. I guess the solution is simple, but since I cannot find it, I have to rely on kind help from you, guys. Thank you in advance.

[Mira_Ghaly]

@valex 

Can you try using the Get Items action so you retrieve all the items on your list and then use apply to each to loop on your list and create file sample below:

Hope this gives you an idea 🙂

[valex]

It is not where the problem is, I need to parametrize the column number to get data within the item itself - going horizontally through the list is where I need help, not vertically.

As I've said, it is a form for business trip with up to 10 employees travelling together, with common trip data that will be used in the output files, I need 10 files per item where only the employee name will be different. Of course, the whole flow will go through all the items in the list so if there are 3 items (different trips planned) the final outcome will be 30 files.

[JisungHan]

Hi @valex ,

Would you please share a couple of screenshots with us and let us understand more about the expression and the location it is?

Best regards,

Jisung Han

[valex]

@JisungHan, there is a screenshot in my previous message, but I'll try once again. I have 10 SharePoint columns that are numerated from Employee1 to Employee10. I was wondering how to get their value without being forced to make 10 actions, for every single of them. My idea was to make "Do Until" loop and to provide field name as concatenated "Employee" + counter value, but no expression for getting field value accepts string or variable as parameter. I have solved this temporarily like this: if(equals(variables('Counter'),1),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee1/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),2),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee2/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),3),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee3/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),4),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee4/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),5),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee5/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),6),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee6/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),7),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee7/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),8),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee8/Value'],if(equals(variables('Counter'),9),outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee9/Value'],outputs('Get_item')?['body/Employee10/Value'])))

but I was hoping if there is a way to get it within one single "Get_item" where I will pass the field name as parametrized variable, or similar. Just to repeat, I need to have employees as columns, not as rows (separate items), since they're tied to a single record in SharePoint representing concrete business trip request.

[Rogier_Duurkoop]

Hi

Did you ever figure this out?
I want to use an expression in an environment variable. But do not know how. Because I dont know how to turn the string into an expression.

Thank you