Replace Newline in Flow Expression

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Posted on by FlowNick

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I have a flow that is parsing a plain text email and creating an item in a SharePoint list.

Everything works great except for when a user enters data with a newline or carriage return (which I don't want in the SP list). I can not figure out how to replace a new line (\n) or any other non-printable character.

I have tried the obvious...

replace(body('Html_to_text'), '\n', '')

I have tried what others claim to be the only solution...

replace(body('Html_to_text'), '
', '')

As well as several other options (e.g.; character codes)...

replace(body('Html_to_text'), Char(13), '')

And nothing works (even when the run doesn't generate an error, the new lines are not replaced). I am able to replace printable characters without issue, it's just the non-printable characters.

So, am I missing something or is it impossible to do what I'm trying to do?

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Building flows

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v-micsh-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @FlowNick,

Thanks for posting.

I will make some tests and share the results.

Regards,

Michael

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FlowNick 111 on at

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Thanks Michael.

Here's what I'm currently using as a workaround:

uriComponentToString(replace(uriComponent(body('Html_to_text')), '%0A', ''))
I figured, since I can replace printable characters, I'd just temporarily convert the string to all printable characters, replace them, then convert it back. It's hack-ish and inefficient but working.

I look forward to seeing your results.

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Thanks FlowNick - workaround works perfectly!

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shahidsaud 5 on at

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Saver of the day. this works awesome.

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Megasween 32 on at

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I think I just found a different work around. needed to replay new lines with <br> html tag. I initalied a variable string. In the string I hit enter so the only character in the string was a new line. I then used the dynamic variable in the experssion.

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Hello,

I'm havin gsome trouble with the same. I'm trying to leverage the solution found but dont know what the "body('Html_to_text')" is referring to. Can someone explain that funciton? Thanks!

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FlowNick 111 on at

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Hi @Anonymous,

body('Html_to_text')
represents data converted through the Content Conversion connector (docs).

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Thanks for the reply Nick! i got it figured out.

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TitoValle 3 on at

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It works!! You saved me a lot of time and I'm really thankful

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stephenJames 286 on at

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@FlowNick wrote:
Thanks Michael.

Here's what I'm currently using as a workaround:

uriComponentToString(replace(uriComponent(body('Html_to_text')), '%0A', ''))
I figured, since I can replace printable characters, I'd just temporarily convert the string to all printable characters, replace them, then convert it back. It's hack-ish and inefficient but working.

I look forward to seeing your results.
I hate to Necro, so sorry in advance.

I am using a similar bit of code to remove line breaks and apostrophes.
uriComponentToString(replace(replace(uriComponent(body('Html_to_text')), '%0A', ''), '%27',''))
This works to put evrything on a single line and removes the characters i dont need. However i cannot seem to get my substrings to run as i keep getting the following message

@FlowNick mentioned that he " temporarily convert the string to all printable characters, replace them, then convert it back." . Is there a step to convert it back that i am missing?

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