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Splitting text string into substrings of a maximum character length

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Posted on by nw_maryland

I need to take the contents of a field that has a large maximum length, and break the string into substrings of maximum length 60 characters. I need to split the string on spaces, so that no words are split. I then will need to patch each <=60 ch substring as a field in a new record to another table. Each substring will have its own record. I am having a lot of trouble with splitting the initial string in this way, so any help would be greatly appreciated thank you!

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takolota1 4,944 Moderator on at

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Re: Splitting text string into substrings of a maximum character length

@nw_maryland

You should use the Chunk( ) expression. It will automatically split a string into an array of items of a set length

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/workflow-definition-language-functions-reference#chunk

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nw_maryland 9 on at

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Re: Splitting text string into substrings of a maximum character length

Thank you - is there a way to specify using Chunk() that the string should only be split on a space? The trouble I have been having is that I have a set maximum length (60 characters) and am needing to separate substrings on the space that falls closest to the maximum length of each substring.

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takolota1 4,944 Moderator on at

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Re: Splitting text string into substrings of a maximum character length

So that is more complicated…

You can create something that will output 60 characters +the characters up to the next space

Create a Compose action with the Chunk( ) on the string

Create a Select action

In the From input use something like

Range(0, length(outputs('Compose')))

Then in the Map input use something like

concat(join(skip(split(outputs('Compose')[item()], ' '),1), ' '), first(split(outputs('Compose')[add(1,item())], ' ')))

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AlexEncodian 4,409 Moderator on at

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Re: Splitting text string into substrings of a maximum character length

I think the ask is for 60 or less characters.

Something like this could work (check syntax) and then use a do until condition to repeat the step:

replace(first(chunk('string', 60)),last(split(first(chunk('string', 60))," ")),"")

Explanation:

split original string into arrays of 60 characters using chunk()

chunk('string', 60)

take first 60 character element

first(chunk('string', 60))

split this by space " " character

split(first(chunk('string', 60))," ")

The last element of the split output array are the characters after the last " " that need to be removed. To get these characters:

last(split(first(chunk('string', 60))," "))

Remove these characters from the first 60 characters using replace()

replace(first(chunk('string', 60)),last(split(first(chunk('string', 60))," ")),"")

That's your first result string (there might be an extra space at the end that you can optionally deal with).

Remove this first result from the original string using replace() and then start the process again on that result until you have less than 60 characters left.

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grantjenkins 11,059 Moderator on at

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Re: Splitting text string into substrings of a maximum character length

I had someone ask that a few days ago. See my response which works on commas - so you would just need to change the following from comma to space, and the rest of the flow should work for you.

//Change lastIndexOf(slice(outputs('Compose'), 0, add(variables('index'), variables('chunk'))), ',') //To lastIndexOf(slice(outputs('Compose'), 0, add(variables('index'), variables('chunk'))), ' ')

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Break-a-string-into-chunks/m-p/2432090/highlight/true#M271582

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nw_maryland 9 on at

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Re: Splitting text string into substrings of a maximum character length

Thank you so much this was perfect. I was able to adapt this to our needs, and we were able to add to the flow you linked to also break under additional conditions. So helpful thanks so much!

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