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Can ShowColumns select fields of related tables?

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Posted on by Len C

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From Dataverse, I am trying to bring back columns of related tables in a single query. Sort of the equivalent of an ODATA $expand clause. Does ShowColumns have a syntax that allows that?

Power Apps "Explicit Column Selection" is somehow doing this. For example, in a table of 'Paperwork' that has a Lookup column to a table of Jobs, PowerApps generates a query that pulls in non-key fields of Jobs (because I use those columns later in the app):

.../api/data/v9.0/$metadata#ccs_opspaperworksets(ccs_opspaperworksetid,ccs_paperworkset,ccs_shiftdate,  
..., ccs_Job(ccs_jobid,ccs_jobsearchdescription,ccs_jobno,ccs_jobcustomername)

Note the field expansion on the relationship field ccs_Job.

When I need to resort to ShowColumns, how can this be reproduced?

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Building Power Apps

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Drrickryp Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@LenC

AddColumns() is the function for obtaining a value from another table with a matching field.

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Len C 379 on at

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I did observe that ShowColumns can pull back fields from related data. The resulting queries and results do not look exactly the same on the wire, but PowerApps sees the data.

As an example, here, I traverse from the primary table, 'Status Reports' to a field of a related (lookup) table:

AddColumns('Status Reports', "Job Search Description", ThisRecord.Job.'Search Description')
This statement kept the columns that Explicit Column Selection settled on (unlike ShowColumns()).

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