Concat Copy and Paste data with button in powerapps

[Mclean2023]

I'm trying to work out how to do a simple copy and paste from a label to a text input but concat with content already in there.

This a very simple form no data cards or galleries, the Concat Data field will be exported to a word doc using power Automate.

Please help and be nice, I'm only just starting with PowerApps 🙂

Required steps.

1. Make selection in drop down selector. (Selector pulls a result from a SharePoint list into the Output field)

2. Select Add Items Button,

3. (Code) Copies from output to concat data. each copy\paste should be added with a line break between.

Thanks in advance, really appreciate any help the community can give.

[EddieE]

@Mclean2023 

Is the TextInput just for displaying the added data? If so, you could use a gallery instead and have your Add button collect into a collection that drives the gallery?

Eg

Add button code

Collect( colConcat, { text: lbDataToAdd.Text})

Gallery items

colConcat

If you then need a string to send to Power Automate, use the Concat function on your collection, eg

Concat(colConcat, text, ",")

[poweractivate · Accepted solution]

@Mclean2023 

You can use the built-in Concatenate and NewLine functions in PowerApps.

Here are the steps:

1. Set up your dropdown control: Populate your dropdown control with the values from your SharePoint list.

2. Create the 'Output' Label: I assume that you have a label that will display the selected item from the dropdown. If not, create a label and set its Text property to Dropdown.Selected.Value (replace 'Dropdown' with the actual name of your dropdown control).

3. Create the 'ConcatData' Text input: This is where you want the concatenated values to go. You do not need to set any default text for it.

4. Create the 'Add Items' Button: The button when clicked, should take the current value in the 'Output' label, concatenate it with the existing value in 'ConcatData' Text input, adding a new line between each entry. To achieve this, set the OnSelect property of the button to the following formula:

Set(ConcatData, Concatenate(ConcatData.Text, Output.Text, Char(10)))

In this formula, Char(10) is used to insert a new line between each entry.

Replace 'ConcatData' and 'Output' with the actual names of your text input and label controls.

That's it! Now, whenever you select a value from the dropdown and click the 'Add Items' button, the selected value will be added to the 'ConcatData' text input, with each entry separated by a new line.

You can then export this data to a Word doc using Power Automate as per your needs.

I hope this helps @Mclean2023 

[Mclean2023]

Seems simple enough and exactly what i was thinking. nice and simple,

what am I doing wrong?

Error when adding the code

Concat Data Field is set

Output label is set

Output label gets data from the dropdown selector using this "Text(Selector.Selected.Applied_Control)"

[poweractivate]

@Mclean2023 

If you're encountering an error with the Concatenate function, it's usually due to the data types not matching correctly. The Concatenate function in PowerApps expects all the arguments to be text (or strings).

It seems like the ConcatData is a text input control (which is correct), but let's ensure that the Output is also text.

The formula you provided, Text(Selector.Selected.Applied_Control), seems to be correct assuming Applied_Control is a text column in your SharePoint list.

If it's not, you may need to convert it to a text format.

Here's how you can debug this:

1. Check the data type of Selector.Selected.Applied_Control. If this isn't a text data type, you may need to convert it to text.

2. If Selector.Selected.Applied_Control is already a text data type, try setting your Output label's Text property to just Selector.Selected.Applied_Control (without the Text() function) and see if that resolves the issue.

3. Check if ConcatData.Text and Output.Text are returning the expected values. You can do this by creating two temporary labels on your screen, and setting their Text properties to ConcatData.Text and Output.Text respectively.

4. Check your SharePoint list for any unusual entries that might cause issues when pulled into the dropdown selector. There could be entries that aren't being correctly interpreted as text.

See if this helps @Mclean2023 

[Mclean2023]

Have double checked everything, it looks to me the ConcatData is the issue, when adding the. Text part it does not come up as an option although it is 100% a text input.

When I add the. Text to the output part the dropdown selector comes up but not for the ConcatData

SharePoint list is to "Multiple lines of text.

Output is set to Text input.

Concat data is set to input text.

This is what the help is giving me.

There is only a handful of items on the page.

I really appreciate your help, although i clearly am not understanding something. (Bloody newbs. I am banging my head against the wall for you 🙂 )

[poweractivate]

does concatdata have .Value? Try ConcatData.Value.Text?

[poweractivate]

@Mclean2023 

Try as well to create new Text Input control name it ConcatData2 and try revise the formulas, then see if it's some intermittent issue .

[Mclean2023]

If i remove the last ) from the formula it allows me to select Text but as soon as you add it back in. very strange

Either option still shows the same error however

[Mclean2023]

I get this now