Distinct function not working with my code

[SeifAltamimi]

Hey, I am building my 2nd PowerApp using a SharePoint list, the App is 3 screens (Problem screen, "people who signed on problem screen", detail screen). If you press on a problem inside the problem screen it will navigate to the 2nd "People who signed" page and shows the names of those people

1 problem can have different people signing on it, on the SharePoint list the problem can be registered again as long as there is a different name.

now since each persons adds a new row with the same problem in the list. In the problem screen you could see the same problem being repeated on the problem list page. my code is as below:

SortByColumns(Filter('SharePoint List', StartsWith(Problem, TextSearchBoxProblem.Text) && 'Date Recorded'=DatePicker.SelectedDate ), "Problem", If(SortDescending1, Descending, Ascending))

I am not sure where to add the distinct function and when i try to experiment it either breaks down the whole thing or only shows 1 problem with 1 person record and hides the rest. Any idea on how i could manage this?

[Feiteira]

Hi there @SeifAltamimi 

Try to set the distinct right away with the Filter() and using the Problem collumn.

SortByColumns(
	Fistinct(
		Filter(
			'SharePoint List',
			StartsWith(
				Problem,
				TextSearchBoxProblem.Text
			)
			&&
			'Date Recorded' = DatePicker.SelectedDate
		)
	),
	Problem,
	If(
		SortDescending1,
		Descending,
		Ascending
	)
)

Let me know if it helped.

Don't forget to give it a Kudos (thumbs up) and "Accept as solution" if it worked out for you 😀

[RandyHayes]

@SeifAltamimi 

Distinct is only going to provide you a table with a single column called Result.  There will be no other column values to choose from.

If you want to have all the records and data, then you do not want to use the Distinct function in this case!

Please consider changing your Formula to the following:

With({_items: 
    Filter('SharePoint List', 
        StartsWith(Problem, TextSearchBoxProblem.Text) && 
        'Date Recorded'=DatePicker.SelectedDate 
    )
    }, 

    SortByColumns(
        ForAll(
            GroupBy(_items, "Problem", "_records") As _item,
            Patch({Problem: Problem}, First(_item._records))
        ),
        "Problem", 
        If(SortDescending1, Descending, Ascending)
    )
)

This would provide you with the full First record of each Distinct Item, plus an added _records column that would contain all the matching records for the Problem.

I hope this is helpful for you.

[SeifAltamimi]

Hey, the first part of your formula seems to be working but inside the 

Patch({Problem: Problem}

the 2nd "Problem" gets the error that it is not recognized and name is not valid.

Should this "Problem" be referring to something in specific? I am testing what I can change it to but still can't figure it out

[SeifAltamimi]

Hey, Thanks for the input but unfortunately the distinct function seems to remove the information inside the other duplicates which means I am only getting information for 1 row rather than all of the duplicate problem rows 

[RandyHayes]

@SeifAltamimi 

The Problem being referenced in that formula is coming from your GroupBy records.

With the formula I provided, did you make any changes to it?

[SeifAltamimi]

did not make any changes to the formula, But it seems that whenever I apply your formula for some reason in PowerApps the Problem column that is coming from the SharePoint list stops being recognized. I will try attempt to switch to a different data source and see what happens. Thank you

[RandyHayes]

@SeifAltamimi 

Check to see what the real name of your column is and use that.

To determine a column's real name, you can click on the column in the List Settings of your list and then in the address bar of your browser, look at the end of the URL - it will show the real name.

[SeifAltamimi]

I did check the column name from the URL and went into the settings to double check. it's the same, I am going to try changing my data source to SQL server and see what happens. hope it works