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Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

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Posted on by JWessel

Apologies if this seems trivial but I've had no luck in getting something to work. I have the following Select in my flow

What I want to do is to take that output value, put it into a variable so that I can use the email address in a send email operation at the end of the flow. Any help is appreciated.

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Business Process Flows

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Ellis Karim 11,651 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

Hi @JWessel ,

In the Select action, switch to text-mode then enter your expression for the email into the Map. Example:

The output will be an array. If the result will only ever have one email address in the output you can use the First function and then reference the email property. Please provide more info.

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Pstork1 68,676 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

use the first() function to get the record out of the data select array and manually reference the email key.

first(outputs('Select'))?['email']

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JWessel on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

@ekarim2020, what is the full json expression? Apologies, I am not familiar with that function

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JWessel on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

@Pstork1 I tried the first function and it failed because result of Select is an object and not an array. I'm going to try the json function mentioned above and then try using the first function.

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Ellis Karim 11,651 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

Hi @JWessel ,

The expression in the previous screenshot was just an example. For your data it will be:

item()?['SendTo']

Ellis
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Pstork1 68,676 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

You could use just the first function in an object variable or a compose. If you want it in a string variable then you have to manually add the field name as I did in the code above. That's what the ?['email'] is for after the first function.

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JWessel on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

@ekarim2020 , @Pstork1 both of you have been extremely helpful in a solution. I will try to mark both of the inputs from you as solutions.

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JWessel on at

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Re: Unable to create and set a variable to hold array element

I did realize that I already had an array earlier in the flow so did not have to use any conversion from object to an array. I've been virtually banging my head against the wall on this full flow out of Power BI report for a couple days now and you and Ellis have been the pain relievers and repaired the drywall at the same time. Many Thanks !!

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