Patch SharePoint person field to blank

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Does anyone know please how to patch a SharePoint person field to blank?

I have the "Formula-level error management" experimental feature turned on.

The person field is single-select only.

I can successfully patch date and choice values to blank, but struggling with the person field.

I've searched this community and this is what I've tried:

Attempt 1:

Patch(
    'Business plan log',
    varRecord,
    {
        'Director name':
        {
            '@odata.type':"#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
            Claims:Blank(),
            Department:Blank(),
            DisplayName:Blank(),
            Email:Blank(),
            JobTitle:Blank(),
            Picture:Blank()
        }
    }
)
);

Attempt 2:

Patch(
    'Business plan log',
    varRecord,
    {
        'Director name':
        {
            Claims:Blank(),
            Department:Blank(),
            DisplayName:Blank(),
            Email:Blank(),
            JobTitle:Blank(),
            Picture:Blank()
        }
    }
)
);

Attempt 3:

Set(
    varBlankPerson,
    {
        Claims: Blank(),
        Department: Blank(),
        DisplayName: Blank(),
        Email: Blank(),
        JobTitle: Blank(),
        Picture: Blank()
    }
);


Patch(
    'Business plan log',
    varRecord,
    {
        'Director name': varBlankPerson
    }
)
);

Attempt 4:

The above attempts with "" instead of Blank().

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

For this to work you need to do two things.

1) For some reason the following code only works if you turn on Custom Errors under experimental features in Settings.

2) Once that is turned on you will be able to patch the person column with Blank().

Patch(
    'Business plan log',
    varRecord,
    {
        'Director name': Blank()
    }
)

[Anonymous]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I already had the setting turned on, but this way of patching Blank() against the field worked perfectly. I appreciate your quick and thorough response.

[rsaikrishna]

@Anonymous 

Patch(
    'Business plan log',
    varRecord,
    {
        'Director name':
        {
            Claims:Blank(),
            Department:Blank(),
            DisplayName:Blank(),
            Email:Blank(),
            JobTitle:Blank(),
            Picture:Blank()
        }
    }
)
);

The above approach works when the Person or Group field accepts Multiple Users.

Regards

Krishna Rachakonda

If this reply helped you to solve the issue, please mark the post as Accepted Solution. Marking this post as Accepted Solution, will help many other users to use this post to solve same or similar issue without re-posting the issue in the group. Saves a lot of time for everyone.

[marpio]

Very good fix! But totally counter-intuitive!

[cha_cha]

Thank you for this concise and illustrated reply.

[Chris110]

It took me a few seconds (minutes...) to realize you were patching just the record not the individual attributes of the person field...I blame it on the Mondays! Thanks for this - very helpful!

[KDAI]

i have 4 person field, which may or may not have data, i have tried all kind of methods none of them is working so far. if any of the combo box is empty then it throws the error. 

Patch(

    'Project Portfolio',

    Defaults('Project Portfolio'),

    {

        'Project Number': txtprjnumber.Text,

        'Project Name': txtprojectname.Text,

        Description: txtprojectdesc.Text,

        State: ddlstate.Selected.Value,

        'Start Date': startdate.SelectedDate,

        Funding: txtfunding.Text,

        CIP: txtcipnumber.Text,

        'Funding Type': txtfundingtype.Text,

        'Funding Code': txtfundcode.Text,

        BLSI: txtblsi.Text,

        'Delphi Project': txtdelphinumber.Text,

        'Project Value': Value(txtprojectval.Text),

        'PLA Year': txtplayear.Text,

        'Project Manager': {

            '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",

            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            DisplayName: Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Email: Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Department: "",

            JobTitle: "",

            Picture: ""

        },

        'Branch Manager': {

            '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",

            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            DisplayName: Coalesce(

               cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Email: Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Department: "",

            JobTitle: "",

            Picture: ""

        },

        'Portfolio Manager': {

            '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",

            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

           ),

            DisplayName: Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Email: Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Department: "",

            JobTitle: "",

            Picture: ""

        },

        'Business Manager': {

            '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",

            Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            DisplayName: Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Email: Coalesce(

                cmbprjmanager.Selected.Mail,

                ""

            ),

            Department: "",

            JobTitle: "",

            Picture: ""

        }

    }

);

If(

     // check if there were any errors when the test score was submitted

    !IsEmpty(Errors('Project Portfolio')),

     // if true, show any error message

    Notify(

        "Project submission failed",

        NotificationType.Error

    ),

     // else, go to success screen

    Navigate(Home);

)

Any idea for a fix 

[jc_24]

how do you actuallly patch it. I mean where do you put this command

[subsguts]

@Pstork1 Is there anyway to do this conditionally within the same Patch?

I have a 2 Person fields that will sometimes have a value and sometimes will not.  They are part of a large Patch Statement.  I would hate to have to duplicate that Patch Statement 3 times to manage if the fields are blank or not.  However, I haven't found anywhere that says putting an embedded If statement inside a Patch is possible.

As always your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!