Remove Special Character

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Posted on by Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee

Hi All,

I'm having an issue where special character is being captured in my dynamic content.

This is my dynamic expression:

trim(first(skip(split(first(split(body('Html_to_text'),'Domain ID :')),'Publisher:'),1)))

The end result should be: Microsoft Windows. However, when the excel online sheet is populated and I filter the results, 3 different Microsoft Windows shows up. I am suspecting there are non-breaking spaces or carriage returns in the string.

If I do a CLEAN function in excel, the strings all match. May I know how I can do a clean function in flow? Thanks.

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Building flows

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Paulie78 8,422 Moderator on at

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There is no clean function, but what you want to do can be done. What I suggest is that you first of all use the uriComponent function to output your string. This will show you all the non printable characters in your string. If you post the output of that here I will construct you a replace statement that will remove the characters. Also check out this blog post I did on the same subject:
https://www.tachytelic.net/2020/10/remove-unwanted-characters-power-automate-flow/

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi Paulie,

Thanks for replying. Here's a screenshot of my current flow.

Where should I insert the uriComponent function? I'll post the output here. Thank you.

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Paulie78 8,422 Moderator on at

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Just put this:
uricomponent(trim(first(skip(split(first(split(body('Html_to_text'),'Domain ID :')),'Publisher:'),1))))
After your html to text in a compose. You could also add a compose of:
uricomponent(body('Html_to_text'))
in a compose on it's own just so we can see all of the non-printable characters in one go, that is perhaps easier. You won't need these steps in the end, this is just to analyse what is there.

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi Paulie,

This is the output I'm getting by using the uri component you suggested. I can't paste the text here for some reason but here is a screenshot. I hope this is helpful!

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Paulie78 8,422 Moderator on at

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You should be able to paste it in a code window here. If not, could you put it on pastebin ?

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi Paulie! Here you go. Thanks for waiting.
%0A%0AFrom%3A%20noreply109%40cyberark.com%20%3Cnoreply109%40cyberark.com%3E%20%0ASent%3A%20Tuesday%2C%2015%20December%202020%2011%3A07%20am%0ATo%3A%20EPM%20Support%20%3Cepmsupport%40nus.edu.sg%3E%0ASubject%3A%20New%20Elevation%20Request%0A%0A%0A%0A%0A%0A-%20External%20Email%20-%0A%0A%0A%0AApplication%3A%20Internet%20Information%20Services%20%28IIS%29%20Management%0APolicy%3A%20Microsoft%20Windows%20OS%20%28Action%3A%20Collect%20Policy%20Automation%20Events%29%0APublisher%3A%20Microsoft%20Windows%0ADomain%20ID%20%3A%20NUSSTF%5Cccehhm%0AComputer%20%3A%20DESKTOP-A10VGF6%0AFileName%20%3A%20InetMgr.exe%0AJustification%3A%20Hi%20IT%20Care%2C%20%0A%0AI%20would%20like%20to%20request%20to%20access%20IIS%20server.%20Thank%20you.

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Paulie78 8,422 Moderator on at

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There are no special characters in this string (other than a linefeed).

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