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Power Apps - Building Power Apps
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Dropdown to set a simple text field and how to deal with non-existing options from legacy data

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I am in the process of migrating a bunch of data to sharepoint online using lists. Reading some best practices, people were saying not to use Choice in the lists and keep them as Simple line of text, and using Power Apps to implement the choices, for instance by connecting to another list with the possible options. 
The issue is that we need to keep some legacy data intact, while only showing users the current valid options in the dropdown. As an example, you have a project with the field "Department". The names of the departments have changed but some projects still have in textual form the name "R&D department", but this department no longer exists. If I open the form and the option no longer exists, the default option on the dropdown will be selected instead, overwriting my data.
 
1. Is keeping Choice fields as "simple line of text" in the lists still the best option?
2. Do I need to keep all the legacy choices still available on any dropdown/combobox in order not to overwrite the field with current set of active options?
 
 
 
 
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  • ronaldwalcott Profile Picture
    3,827 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    Dropdown to set a simple text field and how to deal with non-existing options from legacy data
    Seems more like a question for your audit team before you examine how you should implement it.

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