Splitting Text with "New Line" Delimiter

[OnurOnal]

Hello,

I am trying to map the text in an Excel cell to a textbox in a webpage, but Power Automate writes all the text consecutively and ignores new lines. To solve this, I tried to split the text by using the "new line" delimiter but the issue still remains. The "Populate text field in webpage" action is a non-option because it deletes the entry of the previous index when making the entry for the current index.

Also, the "send keys" action does not write the first letter of the first word.

How can I map the text exactly as shown in the Excel cell?

[Agnius]

Populate text field in web page has an option to not overwrite existing values under Advanced: 

But it won't work with newlines anyway. Your best bet would be using Send keys but replacing new lines with {Enter} so that the Enter key gets sent. Otherwise a new line will usually be ignored.

To solve the problem of losing the first character of the first word, I would suggest using Focus text field on web page before using Send keys. And maybe adding a little wait. It just seems like when you only use Send keys, the first key gets sent too soon and the field on the web page may not be ready to accept it.

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[OnurOnal]

@Agnius,

I have a "send keys" action that presses {Enter}, but the real problem is with the split action not splitting the text properly into the "Descriptions" list. I can press enter, but it has no use if I cannot split the text in the Excel cell into separate line-entries.

As for the first letter being missing, I am using Focus text field on web page and adding a 1 second wait but the same thing happens.

I think that the best way to map would be use the Populate text field in web page with the append option, and then Focus text field on web page and Send keys {Enter} afterwards (shown in image below). But again, this would only work if the text in the Excel cell is split properly. Are there any alternative ways I can split the text without having to use the "New line" delimiter?

[MichaelAnnis]

You could try this:

copy (from excel)

focus text field on webpage

paste

good luck

[Agnius]

You don't really need to split it. You can simply use Replace text to replace \r?\n (with regular expressions enabled, thi will replace new lines) with {Enter} and then pass all of this into a single Send keys action. It will create a single string with {Enter} instead of new lines. Send keys will interpret the {Enter} as a key to send and will do new lines for you.

Not sure why splitting by new line doesn't work for you, though. Do you want a different delimiter? Split text does support several standard delimiters, and you can also provide custom delimiters, if needed. But you do need some sort of a delimiter to split it.

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[OnurOnal]

@MichaelAnnis,

I have copied the text in the cell using the copy action, but it appears that the only pasting action pastes to another Excel worksheet. Is there a way I can store the copied value into a variable which I can then paste using the send keys action? 

[OnurOnal]

@Agnius,

Splitting with new line delimiter does not work because of something having to do with Excel. If it were a txt file there would be no problem, but for some reason Power Automate is not able to detect new lines within Excel cells.

I tried using the Replace text action as you mentioned but it does not work either.

[MichaelAnnis]

Yes. If it’s in a variable, you can Set Clipboard and use the variable to set the clipboard. 

if excel and the page are not communicating, copy out of excel, try opening notepad, pasting into notepad, and then select all copy, and paste into the page. 

good luck!

[Agnius]

Have you enabled regular expressions in the Replace text action?

Also, what exactly is in your %CurrentItem% and why are you using %CurrentItem[1]% and %CurrentItem[2]% in some of those screenshots?

[OnurOnal]

@Agnius,

Yes I have enabled regular expressions. %CurrentItem% stores the current row in the Excel worksheet, so %CurrentItem[1]% and %CurrentItem[2]% are simply column values of that specific row. The text I want to split is in the second column of the Excel worksheet, hence the reason I am using %CurrentItem[1]%.

[Agnius]

It's not really a value. It's stored as the column name instead. If you are reading each row one by one, make sure that your Read from Excel worksheet action does not store the first row of the range as column headers.

[OnurOnal]

@Agnius,

There is no problem with the columns headers. The first column is accessed with %CurrentItem[0]% and the second column is accessed with %CurrentItem[1]%. Please refer to the following images.

[OnurOnal]

The values are pulled from the appropriate cells. The issue is that the text in the Excel cell has new lines (circled in image 1 of 2), and the text that Power Automate maps ignores new lines (circled in image 2 of 2).

[Agnius]

Okay. Why are you using the clipboard there? You don't need to set the clipboard text and then get it. You already have the value in a variable.

Also, I don't see any Replace text actions there. As suggested, if you want to use Send keys (which is recommended, because Populate text field in web page does in fact ignore newlines), you should use Replace text to replace \r?\n (using regex) with {Enter} so that the Enter key is sent by Send keys to create a new line.

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[OnurOnal]

@Agnius,

The Replace text action produces the same result as the Split text action. The text is still mapped into one line and new lines are ignored. Here is an image of the actions I am using. Is there something I am missing?

[Agnius]

Try experimenting with different expressions you may need. For instance, try simply using \r (which stands for a carriage return) instead of \r?\n. If Replace text doesn't find the exact pattern, it will simply not replace anything, but will keep the original value in %Replaced%. So, if your value does not actually have newlines (to be replaced by \n) but only has carriage returns, using \r?\n will not replace anything, but \r could.

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[Pavel_NaNoi]

I've come across this before, do me a favour, in a vacuum setting, just set up a "Launch a browser instance" (whichever you use) and have it attach to the window in which you want to write your text into, now just use a "Populate text field on webpage" with emulated typing and write this into the box:

Some issues were spotted in the ticket:
<BR>
<BR>
Some Note

(<BR> is an HTML tag for a Single Line Break, i.e. new line)

See if that creates two new lines for you, if it does, proceed with the following:

Instead of splitting your text, just use a Replace text,

In your Replace text, create it as in the image below, replace  %NewVar% with the variable containing all the text from the cell:

(If it does not work first time try \r as suggested if it is indeed carriage returns)

[OnurOnal]

@Agnius,

\r?\n successfully detects the new lines, but the problem is with the Replace text: {Enter} part. The actual text '{Enter}' is outputted in the breakpoints rather than the key {Enter}. Is there a way I can send an enter key inside the Replace text action?

[OnurOnal]

@Pavel_NaNoi,

The break points are found with \n, but the Replace with: \n<BR> part does not create a new line. Instead it outputs the text "<BR>" between the break points. \r produces the same result as well.

[Agnius]

Try deactivating escape sequences in Replace text. Also, are you still doing this with Send keys?

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