Field Order

[azizrasul]

I have the following in the OnSelect of a button, which creates a collection and renames the field names. However, the order of the field names are 

Address, Colour, DOB, First Name, Last Name, Post Code, _PowerAppsId_

but I want it in the order

First Name, Last Name, DOB, Address, Post Code, Colour, _PowerAppsId_

ClearCollect(
NewCollection2,
ShowColumns(
SP1,
"Title",
"field_1",
"DOB",
"field_2",
"field_3",
"field_4",
"field_6"
)
);

ClearCollect(NewCollection,RenameColumns(NewCollection2,"Title","First Name","field_1","Last Name","DOB","DOB","field_2","Address","field_3","Post Code","field_4","Colour","field_6","_PowerAppsId_"));

[JR-BejeweledOne]

In your collection include a SortOrder column and number the fields in the order you want them displayed.

[azizrasul]

Unfortunately the column names have to be exact as the data goes into a payment system and the column headings need to match exactly at all times. No room for manoeuvre I'm afraid. 

[JR-BejeweledOne]

If you are patching the fields to your data source you can use AddColumns to add the sort column to the local collection and then not patch it. 

[azizrasul]

I'm a newbie so I don't know what patching is. In that case can I still use patching?

[JR-BejeweledOne]

How are you submitting your data to the data source?

[azizrasul]

The data source is a SharePoint list called SP1 mentioned in the opening post. Ultimately I am creating a flow in Power Automate to export the data to a CSV file. All that works fine, except that the columns in the CSV file are in the wrong order. Hope that makes sense.

[azizrasul]

I changed the column names (see below) which I found automatically sorts the columns correctly without even using SortByColumns. I will post a separate thread to find out how to change the column names in the Excel file which is ultimately what I am trying to do i.e. transfer the collection of data to a Excel file using a Power Automate flow.

1 - First Name

2 - Last Name

3 - DOB

4 - Address

5 - Post Code

6 - Colour

7 - _PowerAppsId_

Would the SortByColumns not simply sort the data rather than re-arrange the columns?

[JR-BejeweledOne]

Are they in the same order in the csv file that they were in the collection before you sorted it?   Have you tried making your new collection like this instead of the way you are doing it:

ForAll(NewCollection2 As NC2,
   Collect(NewCollection,
    {
      FirstName: NC2.Title,
      LastName: NC2.field_1,
      DOB: NC2.DOB,
      Address: NC2.field_3,
      Post Code: NC2.field_4,
      Colour: NC2.field_6,
      _PowerAppsID_: NC2..xxxx 
  }
)

[azizrasul]

The CSV file took the order of the columns in the collection before the columns were sorted.

After the sort, the CSV file took this new order. So all good. 

However since I had to change the column header "First Name" to "1 - First Name" etc. that's how the column header appeared in the resultant CSV file. This doesn't help me as the column header HAS to be "First Name". 

I tried your suggestion (which sounds promising), here's what I have. NC2 doesn't appear as a new collection. Am I doing something wrong?