Replace characters in an array

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Posted on by sausage_dog

Hi all,

I am trying to replace characters in an array.

The below is as below:

[
  "| What is the Employee ID of the person you want to move? | [\"4\"] |",
  "| What is the Employees Forename | [\"Test\"] |",
  "| What is the Employee's Surname | [\"Person\"] |",
  "| What is the effective date of the change? | [\"25/11/2024\"] |",
  "| Who will be the Employee's future line manager? | [\"test@domain.com\"] |"
]

To get the above array, we have to convert to XML and then using a Select using the below to link the questions and answers.

addProperty(item(), 'Answer', xpath(outputs('XML'), concat('//root/array[Sequence/text()="', item()['Sequence'], '"]/Answer/text()')))

We then use another Select action from the output of the above and use

concat('| ',item()?['Question'],' | ',item()?['Answer'],' |')

We then want to use the array in an Approvals action, as below, and we are currently using

join(body('Map_Questions_and_Answers_for_Approval'),decodeUriComponent('%0A'))

to do this.

But the output received by the Approver still has [" and "] around each Response. How can we remove these in the easiest way? Converting to a string, using replace() and then back into an array is really complicated, as we have to use XML to get the array in the first place.

Many thanks,

SD.

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Expiscornovus 33,828 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @sausage_dog,

You can use a json and a join to convert the string array to a value.

Below is an example

Question key

split(item(), '|')[1]

Response key

join(json(split(item(), '|')[2]), '')

Test result

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sausage_dog 63 on at

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@Expiscornovus - Thanks. However, in the Approval action, we can't use HTML... it has to be Markdown... :(

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Expiscornovus 33,828 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @sausage_dog,

The Create HTML table was just to show that it is an array without the special characters. You can ignore that Create HTML table action, you don't have to use that. The suggested approach is in the Select action.

I have updated my example to your situation (with the markdown), if that helps?

1. Second select uses the same name and concat function in the map field

concat('| ',item()?['Question'],' | ',item()?['Answer'],' |')

2. Compose action to create the markdown table

| Question | Response | |-----------|:-----------:| @{join(body('Map_Questions_and_Answers_for_Approval'),decodeUriComponent('%0A'))}

Test result

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Chriddle 8,672 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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The text() in the xpath returns an array. Hence the brackets.

Simply take the first value from this array:

addProperty( item(), 'Answer', first( xpath( outputs('XML'), concat('//root/array[Sequence/text()="', item()['Sequence'], '"]/Answer/text()') ) ) )

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