Power Apps Errors when Converting Text to Value

[sammybridge]

Hello,

Ever since the newest release of Power Apps, I have started getting errors that I didn't have before. The bulk of my errors are saying "We cannot convert the value to a number because the value is an empty string" and this is what I have shown below. As you can see though, the string has the number 5 in it and is not blank. This is causing issues throughout the app as the error is showing hundreds of times as this field drives a lot.

Has anyone seen this issue?

[james_hathaway]

OK, so now, a few months later, and more UNANNOUNCED Microsoft Updates to the Value() function are breaking my Apps.

This Time it's to do with parsing Currency Values:

As the documentation says, Currency Symbols inside a Value() function are only ignored if the currency/language matches the "current" Language of the User...

(Lets not go into the horrifically complicated way the current User's Language is determined from the 5 or 6 different places that the Currency/Language/Region can be set).

So, in the past, Value("£375") would evaluate to 375 no problem, unless a particular User was set to Dollars, in which case, the Value("£375") would throw an error to the User, but Value("$375") would evaluate to 375.

Now, however, the Value("£375") formula does NOT throw an error, either to the User, OR in the studio for the developer (I double checked using a User/PC set to Dollars) - But if you examine the formula in the Studio, it evaluates the above Value() function to "Error", and it just decides that any comparison formula using that "error" value will just evaluate to False, regardless.

So now we have a Value() function that returns ERROR, but does NOT actually tell either the User of the Developer that it's an error, and just evaluates as false - Makes troubleshooting VERY DIFFICULT, and I was very lucky to find this issue. Since when did "Error" evaluate to "False"?

The only solution I have found, is to manually strip off the currency symbol EVERY time it is displayed using a:

Right(text,Len(text)-1) formula, and put this into EVERY SINGLE Value(currency) formula I have, which is about 120 controls! This is made even more difficult by the fact that they are NOT SHOWN AS ERRORS, even though they evaluate to "Error"... Go figure?

I happen to know that @CarlosFigueira was working on either the Value() function or the Error reporting earlier this year, so I have tagged him in to see if he can shed any light on this Bug, as well as perhaps warn us if Microsoft are going to change the Value() function again at all? Perhaps you have a more concise list of changes in the PowerApps Studio version releases?

I'll also repeat something I have said MANY times before - As developers, we need WARNING if Microsoft is going to change the way that a fundamental function works - We just get new versions of the Studio foisted upon us (without a choice), and with LITTLE TO NO DOCUMENTATION of what has changed.

I happen to know that the Value function stopped reporting error on either version 22103 or 22104, but obviously the release notes mention nothing.

Please Microsoft, can you please get your act together?

Your are creating more and more of an Unsustainable development experience, and if it gets much worse, we will have to consider alternative platforms/technologies. This is extra stupid from Microsoft's point of view, as it is people like me/us that are resellers of your product - we are literally your route to market.

[CarlosFigueira]

@james_hathaway I'm not aware of any changes in the Value function, but I'll pass this information to the team to see if anything changed. I also tried this scenario here (in version 3.22111), and it seems to be working as expected - the screenshots below show the output of the Language function and the output of IfError(Text(Value(<LabelName>.Text)),$"Error({FirstError.Kind}): {FirstError.Message}") for a few different values with currency symbols:

en-GBen-USfr-FRja-JP

Are you seeing this behavior in a "normal" app, or in a custom page running as part of a model-driven app? If I remember correctly, in the latter case the conversion is done based on the host settings (instead of the browser settings). If you can confirm where you are seeing this behavior I may be able to better direct it to the correct place.

Thank you!