Double "at" @ symbol converted to single "at" symbol after saving flow

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Posted on by vllanso

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Hello Community,

In a flow, I am initializing a json object variable, and assigning a field with the value "@@" (the 'at' symbol two times).

The funny thing is that if I save the flow, exit, and re-edit the flow, the double 'at' symbol has been converted to a single 'at' symbol.

I have also tried with the equivalent \u0040 and the result is the same ... and if I put 4 consecutive 'at' symbols, and save the flow and open it again, it is converted to 3 consecutive 'at' symbols'.

I was wondering if it is just me ... of if this is a know limitation .. and if there is a way to avoid it.

Following are screen shot examples of the originial flow when I first create it and save it, and the same flow when I exit and re-edit the flow.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks, Victor.

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Building flows

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Expiscornovus 33,891 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @vllanso,

That seems to be an issue of the old designer, I am unable to reproduce it with the new designer. I think Microsoft has fixed that behaviour in the new designer.

If you want to avoid this behaviour in the old designer as well, you can potentially use the below workaround with a string function.

{ "txt1": "@{string('@@')}", "txt2": "@{string('@@@@')}" }

Happy to help out 😁

I share more #PowerAutomate and #SharePointOnline content on my Blog, LinkedIn, Bluesky profile or Youtube Channel

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Chriddle 8,708 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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The explanation for this is that the at char has a special meaning in Power Automate.
It indicates that the following term is a PA expression.

If you actually want to write an at in a string, you have to add another at as the encoding.

If you look at the actual code of the action (Peek code), there are the two at chars (also after reloading the page), even though only one is shown in the value field.

And that's why when you output the string (e.g. with a compose), you only get one at (even though you added two of them):

variables('test').txt1

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vllanso 143 on at

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Thanks for all the answers ... and I finally used the string('@@') formula and it worked.

Regards, Victor.

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CU09061225-0 4 on at

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https://youtu.be/eBHfUrv0vvY

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Ellis Karim 12,163 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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See also: The @ and @{} Trick: Fix Power Automate Expressions Showing as Text

Ellis Karim
elliskarim.com | LinkedIn | Bluesky
If this solved your issue, please mark it as ✅ Accepted Answer. If it helped, feel free to give it a 🩷 Like!

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