Updating Elements in Sharepoint List from Excel Table

[SRMHD]

Good afternoon,

I have a Sharepoint list where I am adding rows from an Excel table into it. That works great as seen in the pictures:

 

However, I put as a condition that when the rows aren't empty, it should update the rows instead with the Elements from my Excel table. The condition works perfectly and it goes into Update Elements. But once the Flow runs successfully the Update Action erased the values of the rows, instead of adding the excel data to the assigned columns.

Does anyone know how I can make it so it just adds the excel data when it updates and not just erases the data that was already in there?

[SRMHD]

If you would like to see any other part of the flow to better understand my problem, I will post it

[v-wenjuan-msft]

Hi @SRMHD ,

Here are some questions help me to know more about your scenario:

1. What content do you put in length() function to tell whether it's empty? Is it output from Excel?

2. In your "If no" branch, you get items from destination SharePoint list and update them in "Apply to each" right?

3. Here you filled in dynamic content from Excel action, but should it be empty (in "If no" branch) right?

If my understanding is right above, reason lead to the issue is you feed the SharePoint list with empty dynamic contents from Excel.

When you update items, you should only fill dynamic contents into those fields you would like to make changes on but leave the remaining alone.

Community Support Team _ Wenjuan Zou

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[SRMHD]

Hello @v-wenjuan-msft ,

The length expression looks like this. It basically just checks if it is empty or not.

As for the If no and Update it actually has dynamic expressions from Sharepoint. My excel table is not empty at all.

It gets into the condition without a problem and when it should. But when it updates it just makes every value in it empty.

[SRMHD]

And all of those fields selected have values in them. The ones that are empty I didn't put anything in them

[v-wenjuan-msft]

Hi @SRMHD ,

Would you please check your length() expression screenshot? seems your put a wrong one.

Wenjuan Zou

[SRMHD]

Hi @v-wenjuan-msft ,

Sorry here

[SRMHD]

In the replies are some new screenshots that are more up to date. If anyone has a suggestion I would appreciate it

[SRMHD]

This problem is still unsolved. I am open for any suggestions, as I am running out of things to do

[v-wenjuan-msft]

Hi @SRMHD ,

So you will "Get items" from your destination SharePoint list and "List rows present in a table" from Excel.

Then you put a Condition to tell whether "Get items" outputs are empty. 

If yes, add a new item into destination Sharepoint list, which works fine.

If not, which means the destination list has items existed, you "Get items" from destination Sharepoint list again and "Update items" with dynamic content from Excel action.

Correct me if I make any misunderstandings to your flow process.

Here are more questions to narrow down your issue:

1. The dynamic contents of "Value"/"ID" originate from which action? I mean which "Get items"? the first one or the second one?

2. In your newly posted snap, I notice the dynamic contents you feed to the "Update items" were changed to Sharepoint ones. However, in "If no" branch, the outputs of Sharepoint "Get items" should be empty right? 

As you only share parts of your flow, it's hard to understand it as a whole. Could you please share the complete process and give it an introduction if we still miss the point this time?

Community Support Team _ Wenjuan Zou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it.

[SRMHD]

Hello @v-wenjuan-msft ,

Allow me to clarify yoru questions:

1: The 'value/ID' comes from the second one.
2: The dynamic values in the newly posted pic are actually not different to the first one. They are all "item()?['Columnname']. The reason in the first one it looks like they are the values from excel is because I changed the Apply to Each value to the output of List rows in table. Which only caused an infinite loop.

And you are correct. The values of Sharepoint are empty. I am trying to get it to use the values from Excel instead. But I haven't found a way how to do that yet

[SRMHD]

Here is the entire Flow that is relevant to the problem I have:

[v-wenjuan-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @SRMHD ,

As your screenshot is too vague to read characters on it and I don't know your language actually, I am still confused about actions you use. I make a demo to reproduce your scenario. Hope this will help you to some extent.

Here is test data from SharePoint/Excel. You can see they share a very same column named ID, I will use it to match each other:

and here is my flow:

Here is the test result:

Community Support Team _ Wenjuan Zou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it.