Editor bug with regex? Type detection fails

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Posted on by MrNappa

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I ran into the following problem while writing a formula. I boiled it down to the following simple example:

This works correctly:

Set( data, "regexdata" );
Set( regex, Match( data, "regex(?<h>.*)" ) );
Set( data, regex.h );

The global variable 'data' is assigned a text value, and after that the regular expression is used to update the value. (You could demonstrate this by displaying the value of the 'data' variable on a label).

However, if I add an extra line :

Set( data, "regexdata" );
Set( rawdata, data );
Set( regex, Match( data, "regex(?<h>.*)" ) );
Set( data, regex.h );

The editor starts throwing errors, indicating incompatible types.

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Building Power Apps

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timl 37,262 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @MrNappa

Have you used the variable rawdata elsewhere in your app and assigned it a data value that isn't of type string? That would be a possible cause of the problem.

Can you rename rawdata to rawdata2 and see if the problem goes away? If so, that would confirm the hypothesis.

Set( data, "regexdata" ); Set( rawdata2, data ); Set( regex, Match( data, "regex(?<h>.*)" ) ); Set( data, regex.h );

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MrNappa 241 on at

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No, this example was done on a new empty blank canvas app, I only added a button and put this formula in the 'OnSelect' handler.

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timl 37,262 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @MrNappa

Unfortunately, I don't know what the cause of this problem is. "regexdata" and regex.h are both of type string, so the syntax should be correct. I think there might be a bug in the editor or PowerApps.

Perhaps someone else might be able to look at this and spot what's wrong?

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MrNappa 241 on at

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a bug too, the automatic type detection algorithm can be a bit off at times. The app where I first experienced this is a lot more complex, and I had the editor freeze on me in the formula that contained a structure similar like this. After that the app failed to load, so I had to revert it to a previous version 😅. (luckily not much was lost, this was the only formula I had been working on since the last stable save).

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iAm_ManCat 18,256 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi,

Yes, I agree this is a bug with how the string within the Match value is being read against other string values - you can use a second variable to get around it though:

Set( Data,"regexdata" );
Set( rawdata, Data );
Set( regex, Match( Data, "regex(?<h>.*)" ) );
Set( Data2, regex.h );
Set( Data, Data2 )

Cheers,

Sancho

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MrNappa 241 on at

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Yeah, thanks for the suggestion. Actually the extra variable is not necessary but I was having a bit of trouble with my regular expression so I added the extra variable to catch the 'raw' value of the string being regexed so I could debug it better. That's when I ran into this.

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timl 37,262 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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@iAm_ManCat - Thanks for the code. It's useful to see how setting a interim variable fixes the problem. It's extra evidence that this is indeed a bug.

Set( Data2, regex.h ); Set( Data, Data2 )

I also now notice that wrapping Text around regex.h removes the error.

@MrNappa - thanks for sharing this problem. Hopefully, Microsoft will fix this. If this sort of problem forces you to revert to a previous version, it sounds serious. I'm glad you didn't lose much work though.

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