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Select columns in List rows action, but exclude columns listed and get all others

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Posted on by David2831

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I am fixing a flow to backup data in dataverse tables and write to a csv file nightly. We sometimes add columns to the tables and don't want to forget to change the backups, so we have been allowing the backup to retrieve all columns.

But a few months ago the flow started to error, saying it was hitting a size limit on the list rows action (around 210MB limit it think). I would like to change the flow to exclude system columns and only retrieve custom columns. Or if that's not possible, then I could make a list of system columns to exclude.

I have tried adding a few SQL commands like exclude or except, but I haven't found a working option yet.

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Building flows

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,335 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @David2831

In the Select Columns, literally just put a comma separated list of logical schema names so use the actual back end names not the Labels.

for example

new_mycolumnyippee, new_youtoo, prefixother_column333

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David2831 104 on at

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@Michael E. Gernaey

How would that list of columns be excluded from the results? I want to list columns to NOT return, not list the desired columns.

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rzaneti 4,241 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @David2831,

I did a quick online search and it looks like there is no "not" operator in the select queries, so no quick solution here.

As alternatives, what comes to my mind is to work with the Dataverse Web API to retrieve the table metadata, including the columns (more instructions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/developer/data-platform/webapi/query-metadata-web-api), or use a List rows limiting the Row count to 1 and apply a few actions to generate an array containing all object keys from this single record (the keys match the table column names and a few more metadata).

With this array of columns in place, you could filter out the list of columns to exclude, as you suggested in the question, and then join the remaining columns in a select query :)

Steps to get an array containing the keys from an object: https://digitalmill.net/2024/10/03/extracting-json-object-keys-in-power-automate/

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional help!

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David2831 104 on at

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@rzaneti

Sorry for the late reply, it took me a bit to get back to this issue and try your ideas. I am about half way to implementing your second suggestion (the API stuff was a little much for me to figure out). And it looks like it will work for me.

Thank you for the great ideas!

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