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Dynamically Select Excel Named Table Based on Dropdown Selection

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Posted on by MCesarz

I am new to PowerApps and have successfully built a survey using cascading dropdowns. However, I would like the top level of my dropdowns to be a specific named table in a prior dropdown. My Excel data source has multiple tabs with each containing a named table representing a system. So imagine:

TAB1 - Contains list of systems, including a column with the name of the TAB which contains that system table

TAB2 = System Table A

TAB3 = System Table B

TAB4 = System Table C....etc

I want to have a dropdown that, based on a prior dropdwon pulling from TAB1, selects the named TAB from TAB1. It seems like I can use something like:

Filter((DROPDOWN.SELECTED.SYSID),QuestionId=("2.1")

But this results in a correct text value instead of the expected Table name. What am I missing?

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v-micsh-msft on at

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If you would like to lookup the table name, you should first create a collection with a table Mapping (With the acutal Table Data).

The value you stored in Excel is just the string, not the actual table data.

Currently the only way that I am aware of is to create a collection to hold the Table Mapping.

If this is what you are trying to implement, please see my posts in another thread as a reference.

Change data source for a drop down on the basis of label text

If the solution above won't help, then please share more details about your scenario, we will then take a deeper look into that.

Regards,

Michael

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v-micsh-msft on at

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Hi @MCesarz,

Do you need any further help on this?

Regards,

Michael

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MCesarz 10 on at

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Still working through it. Was able to try briefly, but without success due to business travel. I apologize for the delayed response.

Trying to understand though, how a collection mapping the multiple tables is different than a table mapping to other tables. Below is my Excel data source example we are presently using as the data source for this PowerApp. One drop-down selects an option which has a column identifying which tab/table should be used to pull a list of questions. I feel like this accomplishes the same thing as the collection would, and would potentially have the same issue. The SOURCE portion of the FILTER function accepts any table name I directly type in, but any attempts to pull the value of the SystemID results in a (correct) text value that is rejected by the function (table expected, text found). So if pulled from a table or a collection, I would expect my text value to still be rejected. Does that make sense?

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MCesarz 10 on at

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FYI - I was able to successfully pull my multiple Excel tables dynamically after setting the logic on my filter correctly using the logic I started with originally. Essentially, what I was successful with worked something like this:

Filter((If(SysID.Text="System1", System1, If(SysID.Text="System2",System2, NUL))), QuestionID=[SelectionCriteria])

The SysID value is a hidden field which is pulled from the dropdown item selected value in order to improve readability of the function formula. I then ran into the 500 record query limit like it seems anyone new to PowerApps has encountered, which reveals the value of using a collection, actually multiple collections, to obtain and use all the Excel table records. So issue resolved and many lessons learned.

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