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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate - Building Flows / Removing speech marks ...
Power Automate - Building Flows
Answered

Removing speech marks and brackets from output

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Posted on 13 Mar 2025 13:30:17 by CU13031327-0 2
I'm a new PowerAutomate and have set up a workflow that adds a new row to an Excel table when a Form is submitted. On the form there is a question which allows multiple answers and when these come through to my Excel table they have brackets and speech marks around them which I don't want. How can I amend my flow to remove these from the output?
 
Thanks
Faye
Categories:
Business Process Flows
  • Suggested answer
    David_MA Profile Picture
    David_MA 9,729 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 13 Mar 2025 at 13:55:40
    Removing speech marks and brackets from output
    When you say speech marks, I assume you are referring to quote marks (")? If so, you can use an expression such as this:
     
    replace(coalesce(item()?['msdyn_flow_approvalresponse_comments'],'No Comments.'),'"','')
     
    Explanation: 
    • Coalesce Function: The coalesce function will check if item()?['msdyn_flow_approvalresponse_comments'] is empty or null. If it is, it will return 'No Comments.' instead.
    • Replace Function: The replace function will then replace any double quotes (") in the resulting string (either the actual comments or 'No Comments.') with an empty string.
    • So, even if msdyn_flow_approvalresponse_comments is empty or null, the expression will handle it gracefully and return 'No Comments.' without any double quotes.
    If you know your field will never be empty/null, then you can use this expression instead:
     
    replace(item()?['msdyn_flow_approvalresponse_comments'],'"','')
     
    Adjust as needed for your circumstances.
  • Verified answer
    Michael E. Gernaey Profile Picture
    Michael E. Gernaey 35,867 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 13 Mar 2025 at 13:55:32
    Removing speech marks and brackets from output
     
    You would have to do something like this in a compose and then use the compose output instead of the answer
     
    replace(replace(replace(string(myquestion), ']', ''), '[',''),'"', '')
    where myquestion is replaced by your question dynamic property

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