Why does lookup field only the Lookup Field ID in power automate?

[Ameen1989]

I am practicing changing/updating the value of a lookup field in a sharepoint list using flow. I created two lists, with one having the lookup columns Office, and the additional lookup columns City and State.

In power automate, I am using an update item action and selected the list in which I want to update the lookup column but I don't see any of the lookup fields in that list except for Office Id. I have not created this and now sure where it is coming from.



My questions are:
1. Why isn't the update item trigger showing all of the lookup columns?
2. Where did the ID column come from? I did not create it

[annajhaveri · Accepted solution]

@Ameen1989  you are seeing Office Id because just by providing Id value of Office item, you can update lookup field value. The other two columns City and State did you select the checkboxes of these columns while creating Office lookup field, if yes, then these wont appear while updating item, as these column values will be dependent on the Office value item.

[Ameen1989]

@annajhaveri 

Thank you for the reply. This is clear now. Can you guide me on how to dynamically update the value of this lookup field using the ID?

If I can't change the value of the lookup field office for example lets says from Google to Yahoo as a string. How can I update it using the ID?

[annajhaveri]

@Ameen1989  lookup value is associated with ID, so you can update its value with Id. E.g. in the Office list, if you have two items Office 1 and Office 2, both items would have item ID for example 1 and 2. Now if you provide ID value 1 in the Office Id column of update item. Then Office 1 value will be saved in Office column. To know the item ID of Office item, modify the view of Office list, add ID column to the view. You will see each Office item's ID.

[Ameen1989]

@annajhaveri 

Can we target one of the additional columns only. Lets say I want to update the Office: City only. Is it possible to update only that column or will all of the lookup columns be updated?

[annajhaveri · Accepted solution]

@Ameen1989  if City is associated lookup column of Office lookup column, then you cant update City lookup column. E.g. Below data of Office list

Office	City	State
Office 1	City 1	State 1
Office 2	City 2	State 2

Now if you set office lookup column column value as Office 1, the City and State associated lookup column will have values City 1 and State 1 respectively.

E.g. If you want the Office lookup  value as Office 1 and City lookup column value as City 2, then you need to create City lookup column as a separate column, not as associated lookup column of Office lookup column.