Array' cannot be initialized or updated with value of type 'String'.

[nikitamobile85]

Hello everyone,

I' m trying to initialize a variable like shown on the screenshot but getting an error message 

The variable 'vAuthorization' of type 'Array' cannot be initialized or updated with value of type 'String'. The variable 'vAuthorization' only supports values of types 'Array'. I'm a bit confuced by this error cause I have checked everything and array format should be fine. Please advise!

[
{
"Postion": "Applicant",
"Name": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/Author/DisplayName']}",
"Status": "Submitted",
"Date": "@{formatDateTime(triggerOutputs()?['body/Created'], 'yyyy-MM-dd')}",
"Signature": ""
},
{
"Postion": "MNG",
"Name": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/General_x0020_Manager/DisplayName']}",
"Status": "@{outputs('Get_item')?['body/General_x0020_Manager_x0020_appr/Value']}",
"Date": "",
"Signature": ""
},
{
"Postion": "DGM",
"Name": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/Deputy_x0020_General_x0020_Manag/DisplayName']}",
"Status": "@{outputs('Get_item')?['body/DGM_x0020_approval/Value']}",
"Date": "",
"Signature": ""
},
{
"Postion": "GM",
"Name": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/Manager/DisplayName']}",
"Status": "@{outputs('Get_item')?['body/Manager_x0020_approval/Value']}",
"Date": "",
"Signature": ""
},
{
"Postion": "Chief Accountant/FD Asst Manager",
"Name": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/Chief_x0020_Accountant/DisplayName']}",
"Status": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/Chief_x0020_Accountant_x0020_app/Value']}",
"Date": "",
"Signature": ""
},
{
"Postion": "FD Deputy GM",
"Name": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/FD_x0020_Deputy_x0020_GM/DisplayName']}",
"Status": "@{outputs('Get_item')?['body/FD_x0020_Deputy_x0020_GM_x0020_a/Value']}",
"Date": "",
"Signature": ""
},
{
"Postion": "GD",
"Name": "@{triggerOutputs()?['body/General_x0020_Director0/DisplayName']}",
"Status": "@{outputs('Get_item')?['body/General_x0020_Director/Value']}",
"Date": "",
"Signature": ""
}
]

[VictorIvanidze]

Thanks. What will happen if you place only 

[]

to the Value field? 

[VictorIvanidze]

Hi @Chriddle, certainly you are right, but do you see any errors in his JSON above? 

[Chriddle]

Hi @VictorIvanidze , no I don't see the error, but the validator will find it 😉

[Anonymous]

If I were the OP I would mark your response as my solution. I felt like a complete idiot after finding out that I was missing a comma about halfway down the schema. *Pro Tip: Always validate the JSON first! Great tip and I have now saved that validator in my favorites for future reference. Thank you for your help.

[VictorIvanidze]

Hi @Anonymous,

but what said validator? 

[Anonymous]

It showed that I was missing a comma halfway through that I had overlooked when checking it myself.

[VictorIvanidze]

It means in fact you didn't get any error when you flow handled 

[
{
"Name": "Jonnie H.",
"UPN": "Jonnie.H@email.com"
},
{
"Name": "Kevin G.",
"UPN": "Kevin.G@email.com"
},
{
"Name": "Ken W.",
"UPN": "Ken.W@email.com"
}

]

[CW]

Didn't see it was an initialize variable, didn't have reading glasses on. But yes, subsequent actions you could employ replace. Sorry, it seems my reply doesn't live up to your "expertise". Just trying to help, I'll make sure not to in future.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I didn't post my full JSON on here for privacy reasons and because it was several hundred lines long. So it was just a missed comma in my full JSON file.

[ChrisMSK]

Build the dynamic json string in a variable (firstVarWithJsonString), and make that variable a string. 

In the next variable, the one that is set as type "array" you can use this expression.

json(variables('firstVarWithJsonString'))

This is the missing part.  This finally worked for me.  Its very selective, but it does make sense, you convert the string, into JSON (even when the string looked like json, but Logic App does not know this) you have to convert the string to a json object, then the "array" type works. 

[MadMuck]

Just because I had this issue today and found this post, I thought I'd share my solution in case it helps someone else in the same boat.

For me, this was just a matter of Power Automate being finicky.  I had an "Initialize variable" action originally set to a string type, but later I changed it to an array type without changing the value and began receiving the OP's error.  To resolve the error, I did this:

1. Changed the variable's name
2. Created a second "Initialize variable" action and set its type to "Array"
3. Gave the variable in this new action the name of my original variable
4. Copied the formula in my original action to the new action for a value
5. Save & Test!

At this point, both actions were successful.  I was able to change the name of my original variable back to what it was and remove the second action, and it continued to work after this.  I guess Power Automate just needed a small bonk to the noggin to work as expected.

[CW]

Thanks for sharing that!! How many people wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out when all along, all it required was the typical WORKAROUND/HACK when as you said it should work as expected.
I wonder if it had something to do with it not being a Tuesday with a full moon??

[kethr]

posting my solution here... problem was Microsoft Word and it's fancy fonts. I had an excel with 150+ rows. Copy/paste-as-text'd this to Word to use it's find/replace feature to swap out special character (paragraph) to:
",^l"

that changed the unprintable paragraph marks (from excel) to quote comma new-line quote .. that gave me the basic structure, just needed to add [ and ] at the beginning and end. Got the exact same error as you. and the quote marks look identical.... ... 

Then I went to my favourite app for this kinda thing. Notepad. Pasted the array and the quotes were the stupid left/right 66 and 99 icons. I did a find replace in notepad for actual double-quote marks " (unicode: ALT-34)

Copy/pasted everything back in to the powerautomate initialize array function and voila. Green checkbox. 

Someone else in the thread asked "are you sure it was the right type of quotes"... so i guess that was the same as i'm saying: 

Curly-quotes “”  and double-quotes " are NOT the same 

[deimos]

My goodness, truly a pro tip. I spent over an hour trying to figure out why my Array wouldnt take my values - turns out there was a pre-emptive line break that was hidden! Thank you.

[ShantanuSri]

@VictorIvanidze I have the same issue; I have attached my Initialize variable in edit mode.

Could you please take a look ?

[VictorIvanidze]

@ShantanuSri,

you have initialized an empty array. And what's your problem? 

[ShantanuSri]

I am trying to set some variables as a .csv table which i will use later, but this flow is failing with the error stated in one of the screenshots.

[Chriddle]

There is an error in the JSON. Therefore it is a String.

Remove the last comma from the value of the variable.

[ShantanuSri]

WOW !!

Thanks a ton @Chriddle . That worked like a charm ! 🙂