Unable to remove last character from String Variable

[lardo5150]

My flow is grabbing the work days for each user in a SPO List.

For each workday, I add it to a variable like this.

Sun,Mon,Tues,Weds

When I add it to the variable, I am using a comma at the end.

So when it gets posted to the SPO list, it actually looks like this:  Sun,Mon,Tues,Weds,

I am trying to remove the last comma, but it is not working.

Towards the end of my flow before I update the SPO item, I have a compose that is supposed to remove that last character.

I am using the same compose for another variable, and it is working fine.

substring(variables('vAssignmentDay'), 0, sub(length(variables('vAssignmentDay')), 1))

Any idea why it is not removing that last trailing comma?

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @lardo5150,

Your expression looks fine. Can you show a screenshot of the values used in the flow instance which failed? Maybe there is a trailing space character which you don't see?

If you want to be sure you could also use a lastindexof in your expression:

substring(variables('vAssignmentDay'), 0, lastIndexOf(variables('vAssignmentDay'), ','))

[lardo5150]

So, it does not error, everything runs perfectly, I am just left with that trailing comma 🙂

FYI, as I show you this, keep in mind I was copying code from some of my other flows, so the Compose is most likely not needed but I just kept it anyways.

We check to see if the variable vSunday is equal to zero (Monday is 1, Tuesday is 2, etc.)

if it is, we do a compose (again, most likely not needed but I kept it as I was doing a copy to clipboard on everything).

concat('Sun')

We then add that output to the variable with a comma (I just checked, there is no space after the comma).

We do this for each day, checking if they are working that day, and add it to the variable the same each time, with a comma at the end.

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @lardo5150,

Thanks for your explanation. I am a bit confused, to be honest 😁.

Do you have that substring function to clean up the trailing comma in your current flow setup? If so, where in the flow is that located? I assume after the last append to string variable action?

Btw, another approach could be to create an array of working days and using a join function to turn it into a comma separated string value. With this approach you don't have to worry about a trailing delimiter.

[lardo5150]

That is a good idea.  I will see if I can rework this later on.

For the time being, if we can get the trailing comma to drop that would be great.

and yes, the compose of removing the trailing comma is at the end.

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @lardo5150,

Can you share a screenshot of your AssignmentDays column setttings in SharePoint. It is a choice field (which allows the selection of multiple values?), correct?

I will create a sample for you with a join function 🙂

[lardo5150]

Yes, but the way it was designed is not user friendly (I did not build up the SPO site, I just have to work with it).

So I am doing the same thing for AssignmentDays and AssignmentHours.  they are both choice columns.

Hours start at 0 up to 23 (military).

Days starts at 0 (Sunday) to 6.

So I am created a single line text column next to them and am putting the more user friendly values there.

You can see I did the QueueTime and the trailing comma was removed.  Not sure why it did not work for the work days as everything is the same.

[Expiscornovus · Accepted solution]

Hi @lardo5150,

Below is an example of a join function to turn an array (choice field with multiple selections) into a comma separated string value.

1. Use a Select to retrieve the labels of the selected values of the AssignmentDays field.

2. In the update item action an expression is used in the WorkDays field to join these values from the select with a comma delimiter:

join(body('Select'), ',')

The end result should look something like this.

In your setup you probably can use a couple of nested replace functions instead of the item()['Value'] in the Select action. It looks a bit quirky, but it should work.

replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(item()['Value'], '0', 'Sun'), '1', 'Mon'), '2', 'Tues'), '3', 'Weds'), '4', 'Thurs'), '5', 'Fri'), '6', 'Sat')