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Function Friday: Binary, DataUri, UriComponent, and Base64 Conversion Functions

This time I’m going to delve into conversion functions for base64 and binary. Both are typically used to convert binary files such as images and zip files back and forth between formats that various connectors need in order to process them. It’s also sometimes used to generate hashes used for checksums, certificates, and encryption. base64 The base64 function is used to convert a string into a base64 encoded version of a string. The pattern is:

Friday, July 29, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Data Type Conversion Functions - Bool, Decimal, Float, Int, String

For this batch of functions, we’ll start delving into the data type conversion functions. For the first group let’s look at the base type conversions. They all work pretty much the same way. Bool The bool function is used to convert input data into boolean form (i.e. true or false). The format is pretty straightforward: bool(<value>) The value can be of number or string data types. The output depends on the data type of the input. Numbers all work the same way, whether it’s an int, float, or decimal. If the input number is 0, bool returns false. If the input number is any other value, positive or negative, and the result is true.

Friday, July 8, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Collection Functions: Contains, Item, Join

For the last group of collection functions, we’re taking a look at the functions that focus on the items in the collection itself. Contains The contains function details whether or not a collection contains a specific element. The result is a boolean value (true/false). The pattern is as follows: contains('collection', 'value') contains([collection], 'value') The exact way it works depends on what the collection is. If the collection is a string, the contains function works to find a substring of characters.

Friday, June 17, 2022 | 2 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Collection Functions: Intersection, Union, Skip, Take

For the second batch of collection functions we’re taking a look at the functions that let you work with the collections themselves. These functions let you slice, dice, and merge one or more collections together. Intersection The intersection function compares two or more collections and returns a new array that contains only the elements that exist in all the passed in collections. The format is as follows: intersection(collection1, collection2, ...) As with all the functions, you can pass in collection variables or literals, and strings are treated as character arrays.

Friday, June 10, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Collection Functions - First, Last, Empty, Length

Power Automate contains excellent support for working with collections of objects. Generally, these will be treated as arrays of objects. However, these functions will also work with strings as, in Power Automate, strings are also considered a collection, as they are essentially an array of characters. As such, Power Automate contains a good selection of functions for working with these collections. For my return to functions in Power Automate, we’ll take a look at the first group of collection functions: First, last, empty, and length.

Friday, June 3, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - More Math

I previously covered some of the base math functions available. This time I’ll cover the math functions that are related to working with arrays of numbers. This includes the max, min, rand, and range functions. max & min These two functions work the exact same way. The max function returns the largest number in an array of numbers, and the min function returns the smallest number in an array of numbers. The format is as follows:

Friday, April 8, 2022 | 2 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Slice and Split

This week I’m returning to some of the string manipulation functions: slice and split. slice The slice function is essentially an enhanced version of the substring function. The pattern for the function is as follows: slice(string, startIndex, endIndex) The first parameter is the string to be examined. As always this can be a string literal, a variable, or the output from a previous trigger or action. The second is the startIndex. Unlike the substring function, if the startIndex value is greater than the length of the string, an empty string is returned instead of an error. You can also pass in a negative value for your startIndex. Doing so will count backward from the end of the string and start looking there. For example:

Friday, April 1, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Logical Comparisons

Similar to most programming languages, Power Automate contains a number of logical functions for comparing values. These include: and, equals, greater, greaterOrEquals, if, less, lessOrEquals, not, or. Most of these functions work in the same general manner. The function name is passed two or more parameters. The parameters may be single values or expressions, such as the following: @equals('There', 'Their') //returns false @and(equals('hello', 'goodbye'), equals(1, 2)) //returns false @less(5, 10) //returns true Let’s go through the various functions.

Friday, March 25, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - The String IndexOf's

For this week’s #FunctionFriday, I’m going to cover 3 more string functions. This group is related to searching for a particular block of text within a string: indexOf, lastIndexOf, and nthIndexOf. All three of these functions work pretty much the same way. You pass in the text you are searching for and the text you are searching within, and it tells you whether or not if found a match. Let’s start with the base function: indexOf.

Friday, March 18, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Add, Sub, Mul, Div

One of the weakest areas for Power Automate’s functions is in the math and numbers area. For this week’s #FunctionFriday, I will delve into the first batch of math-related functions, I’m going to cover the basic 4: add (addition), sub (subtraction), mul (multiplication), and div (division). The pattern is basically the same for all of them: add(5.5, 6) //returns 11.5 sub(5.5, .5) //returns 5.0 mul(3, 3) //returns 9 div(9, 3) //returns 3 You have the function name and then two number parameters. And therein lies the most frustrating part of the functions. You can only pass two parameters. If you need to do math with more than two numbers, you have to call the function multiple times. Like so:

Friday, March 11, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Function Friday - Concat & Substring

For the first of my #FunctionFriday posts I’m going to focus on a couple of the most common string functions: concat and substring. concat The first function we’ll look at is concat. This function lets you glue together 2 or more other strings into a single string. The syntax is simple: concat(string 1, string 2, string 3) There isn’t a limit on the number of strings you can combine together, but you have to supply at least 2 arguments. These arguments can be any combination of literal strings, string variables, and string outputs from previous actions in the flow.

Friday, March 4, 2022 | 3 minutes Read
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Power Automate - Expression Functions

While it’s fantastic to be able to use Power Automate to connect to hundreds of different systems to move data from place to place, one of the most powerful features of Power Automate are the functions you can use in expressions to manipulate data. Over the coming weeks, each friday I’ll take a deeper dive into various functions and how they work. But for this first post, I’ll provide a high level overview of expression functions and their use in Power Automate.

Friday, February 25, 2022 | 6 minutes Read