Bypass Apply to each loop on single record

[Jcook]

The Problem:

Power Automate creates a 'Apply to each' loop when selecting dynamic content from a action that Lists items, folder, or anything.

In most cases this is awesome and creates a nice smooth workflow.

However, what about when you know exactly what you want to look for and you know its only going to be 1 record, item, whatever is going to be returned. Power Automate will still make you use the 'Apply to each' loop.

This may not be a such a terrible thing, but if you need to do multiple things underneath that action, you will have to put them in the loop as well (if you need any data or reference to that action)

Why not use a get record instead:

In some cases, yes a 'Get' action will be perfect, but this is only if you know the "Key".

In my example I only know the users 'Full Name', so I cannot use the CDS 'Get record' action.

Note:

Regardless of what connector or actions you use, this method will allow you to bypass the loop.

Solution:

Okay now on to the magic..

In my example Flow:

• I am using a 'Compose' action to have my Full Name stored.
• I am using the 'List records' CDS action to list records from the default Users table entity.
• I am using a ODATA filter on the 'List records' which I am using to filter fullname
• Under the 'List records' I use a 'Compose' action to store the users ID(Primary Key from CDS) and the users Email Address

My List Records with my Odata filter

Add a Compose action below the List action. And select Expression

Type anything, this is to keep us in Expression mode when we switch back to Dynamic Content tab

If you see the fx Logo in the Dynamic Content Tab, you have done this correctly

Remove what you had, and Click the Value of the action you want to bypass the loop with

Remove the ? and add [0] This is saying we want the first record only. Since this returns an array we say 0 as this is the first record in an array

after the [0] we type what the field name is, in this format: ['feildname']

Click OK.. I usually like to put the Expression in a Comment

Here is another example. Getting the email address from the List records

The expression is:

body('List_records')['value'][0]['systemuserid']

and

body('List_records')['value'][0]['internalemailaddress']

Success

Limitations:

The only thing you have to watch out for is when there is a empty record. This will cause an error if the record is empty.

This can easily be fixed using a Condition If block before the Compose to check if value is empty using the empty() expression.

Thanks.

I hope anyone finds this useful. This boosts performance greatly when you only need one record.

—Josh
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