How to save multi line text column when using the action create csv table

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Posted on by Anonymous_Hippo

1,247 Super User 2024 Season 1

Hello All,

I have created a flow that runs daily morning and backups all the information of my sharepoint list. I noticed that when i save a multi line column the create csv table action only captures information before the first line break. Is there any way on how i can save all of the data

Helppp 🙂

Thanks

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CU-18081211-6 9,270 Moderator on at

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@Anonymous_Hippo ,

It will be impossible to keep the line brake char in a csv file/table because this special char have a different job in it.

So, what I propose to do is to replace the linebreak char with something else like '???' (my following example is based of that, but is not mandatory) and when you use the csv in other places make the conversion .

Here is what I am thinking:

1. The easiest way in PowerAutomate to have the linebreak char is inside a variable. Initialize a variable and set its value to enter:

2. Get the relevant data from SharePoint.

3. Create your CSV table as you need, using for multiline of text column the following formula:

If (
empty(item()?['MultiLineOfText']),
'',
replace(item()?['MultiLineOfText'],variables('NewLine'),'???')
)

Please note that I used the if clause to avoid empty values of MultiLineOfText which are not supported by replace function.

Hope it helps !

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Anonymous_Hippo 1,247 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Dear @gabibalaban,

Your solution is perfect for me. One question, for creating backups of sharepoint list would you suggest any other way ? (which is better than the above ) I understand that MS keeps a minute by minute copy of my SharePoint list but this backup is only for my reference and i don't want to go through all the trouble to recover this data regularly incase I mess them up. (Also i do have versioning on but i prefer an excel document 🙂 )

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CU-18081211-6 9,270 Moderator on at

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@Anonymous_Hippo ,

I don't think that PowerAutomate is a right approach for this kind of backup tasks (as the number of executed actions in PowerAutomate is/will be limited to daily number of action).

If you don't have access to specialised Azure Resources to back up that SharePoint list, I think (but I didn't test it) that PowerShell recurrent task is a way to do it.

Here is a great article about how you can ExportSharePoint Online List Items to CSV using PowerShell.

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Anonymous_Hippo 1,247 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Thank you @gabibalaban 🙂 i will look into this

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aadhawan 111 on at

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Thank You for this great solution, I have been struggling for days.

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dnumbers 2 on at

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Thanks for helping the community! Do you happen to know the process when the field created is timestamped? There is an option in SharePoint lists that creates a multi-line field but you append the text one by one and it also has a timestamp. Thanks for any guidance!

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