Match User to another User but not overlapping.

[_sourcecod3_]

Hi all,

I’ve been tasked with a very interesting process to automate the following process using Power Automate and a SharePoint list.

I have a list of users that need to be matched with another user every week and send out a communication to both the user and the assigned to.

The idea is to match them every week, but not match it with the previous user until they’ve been assigned to each other. Then it will start assigning them again from the beginning.

So if User1 was assigned to User2, User1 should not be assigned to User2 again until it’s been assigned to User3, User4, User 5 and so on until User 10, then it can be assigned back to User2.

Users cannot be assigned to themselves either. User1 to User1

User	Assigned To
User1	User2
User2	User3
User3	User4
User4	User5
User5	User6
User6	User7
User7	User8
User8	User9
User9	User10
User10	User1

Has anyone done anything like this before? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head on how to automate this.

Thanks

[Nived_Nambiar]

Hi @_sourcecod3_ 

I have few doubts around this 

1. Since the process is running weekly, does the user assignment should be done from start itself.

For example 

in week1 

User 1 is User 2

in week 2

User 1 should be assigned to User 3 /User 4 .. but not user 2 again ?

Is it something like you need to achieve ?

Also how list data is stored? is it in seperate list ?

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

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[Chriddle]

Date is a Compose with the current date (Here it is hardcoded for testing purposes. Just add utcNow() later.)

2024-04-09T00:00:00.0000000Z

Users is a Compose with the User array, representing the SP list values

[
	"User 0",
	"User 1",
	"User 2",
	"User 3",
	"User 4"
]

Shift is a Select that calculates the shift between "User" and "Assigned To".

To do this, the number of weeks is determined and calculated modulo the number of possible shifts.

add(
	mod(
		div(
			if(
				contains(
					dateDifference(
						'2024-01-01T00:00:00.0000000Z',
						startOfDay(outputs('Date'))
					),
					'.'
				),
				int(
					split(
						dateDifference(
							'2024-01-01T00:00:00.0000000Z',
							startOfDay(outputs('Date'))
						),
						'.'
					)[0]
				),
				0
			),
			7
		),
		sub(length(outputs('Users')), 1)
	),
	1
)

Select creates the User/Assigned To objects

From

range(0, length(outputs('Users')))

Map User 

outputs('Users')[item()]

Map Assigned To

outputs('Users')[
	mod(
		add(item(), outputs('Shift')),
		length(outputs('Users'))
	)
]

[_sourcecod3_]

Hi @Nived_Nambiar , yes that would be ideal.

[Nived_Nambiar]

Ok one question here

if there are 5 users , user1, user2, user3, user4 and user5 

then first week assignment should be 

user 1 assigned to user 2

user 2 should be user 3

user 3 should be assigned to user 4 

user 4 should be assigned to user 5 

user 5 assigned to user 1?

should it be like this ?

Thanks & Regards,

Nived N 🚀

LinkedIn: Nived N's LinkedIn
YouTube: Nived N's YouTube Channel
Blog: Nived Nambiar's Blogs

🔍 Found my answer helpful? Please consider marking it as the solution!
Your appreciation keeps me motivated. Thank you! 🙌

[_sourcecod3_]

Hi @Nived_Nambiar correct.

[_sourcecod3_]

Hi @Chriddle I will give this a try and let you know. 

[_sourcecod3_]

Hi @Chriddle , bypassing the dates, how would I accomplish this?

[Chriddle]

bypassing the dates, how would I accomplish this?

Sorry, I don't understand the question.

Why bypass the date, if you want to make a change every week?

[_sourcecod3_]

Hi @Chriddle , I can do the date manipulation on a different action within the flow. So that when the flow is scheduled to run, let's say every Monday, it'll run for that week and so on. 

So the flow will just map users with other users they haven't been mapped with. Then the following week it'll do the same thing.

[Chriddle]

There is no date manipulation in my flow. Only the weeks from January 1, 2024 are counted (this is just a random starting point) to determine what “shift” is required.

If you don't use something as described above, you have to store the shift permanently in order to be able to calculate the shift in the next run.

If you have already calculated the shift elsewhere in your flow, simply remove Compose "Date" and replace the expression in Compose "Shift" with your integer.