Select action that only outputs columns in the source with values

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Posted on by Cgangweg01

870 Super User 2026 Season 1

Hello,

I have a business user who created a multi question/condition MS Form, in which, depending on the answers, goes down different paths. Only certain fields are filled in each time. When the form is submitted, I'd like to build a record of just the values that have been filled in. The empty columns can be ignored. Do I do this with a Select action and expressions? Or is there another way?

Thanks for any guidance!

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Building flows

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Sunil Kumar Pashikanti 1,353 Moderator on at

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Hi @Cgangweg01,

Select + expressions is the correct and supported pattern, but it must be combined with a filter step.

Important limitation:
The Select action by itself cannot conditionally remove properties. It always outputs all mapped keys, even when values are empty.

Recommended Pattern

Convert the form response into a key‑value object

Convert that object into an array

Filter out empty values

Rebuild a clean object containing only populated fields (Optional)

This pattern:

Works reliably for branching MS Forms
Scales well as questions change
Avoids dozens of Conditions or hard‑coded branches
Produces a clean, reusable output

Step 1:
Map each question name to its response:
{
"End Date": outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/EndDate'],
"Seafood": outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/Seafood'],
"Perishable or Total": outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/Perishable']
}

Sept 2:

Convert object to array
union(body('Compose'), body('Compose'))

Step 3:
Filter out empty values
not(empty(item()?['Value']))

https://learn.microsoft.com/power-automate/use-expressions

https://learn.microsoft.com/power-automate/data-operations

✅ If this answer helped resolve your issue, please mark it as Accepted so it can help others with the same problem.
👍 Feel free to Like the post if you found it useful.

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Cgangweg01 870 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @Sunil Kumar Pashikanti

Thank you!

So, step two basically creates a record in the array of each field in the response whether it has a value or not. Then filter the empty out. Is that it?

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Sunil Kumar Pashikanti 1,353 Moderator on at

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Hi @Cgangweg01,

Yes. Step 2 converts the response object into individual key‑value records (including empty ones). Step 3 filters out the empty values, leaving only the fields that were actually answered.

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Chriddle 8,672 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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The function union() cannot convert an object into an array.

Try this instead:

xpath( xml( addProperty( json('{}'), 'Root', outputs('Compose') ) ), '/Root/*[. != ""]' )

json(item())

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