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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Automate flow to impor...
Power Automate
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Automate flow to import excel data from a complicated export file into lists

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Posted on by 39
 
I was hoping someone could send me in the right direction.

 

I have programs that only export their data in a certain excel format which is not table friendly. I essentially need to extract this data into lists that I already have the columns set up for each data point I need. Some have 40 data points, some have over 120. Is there a more elegant way of telling which cell needs to go to which column in the table? Only solutions I can think of is have power automate do a huge JSON script to do it. Or would creating another excel with macros for moving the datapoints to a table be better for power automate to run?

 

My powerapp is to take this exported data and import it into the lists.

 

Example of exported data I have to work with.

mp13_0-1674821722645.png

 

mp13_1-1674821722635.png

 

 

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  • wskinnermctc Profile Picture
    6,519 Moderator on at

    That might be something you can do using a Dataflow into a Dataverse table. In a Dataflow you can use the power query to get files and then format the data to put into a Dataverse table. Power query can be helpful with some clunky outputs and putting them into a format you want if you know how to use it.

     

    You could then use a PAflow that triggers like when you add a file to a folder, and within the PAflow is a trigger to start the Dataflow which will go into the folder and get the files and format them an put them in a dataverse table, when the Dataflow is complete it will tell the PAflow which would then call the data from the Dataverse table to put into your SPList. Also in that PA flow you could delete the document from the file folder so that next time the Dataflow isn't rerunning all of the older files (you could leave all the old files, but it will make it slow).

     

    This probably seems like a lot of work, but that's what I would do since I'm comfortable with using Power Query and Dataverse.

     

    Also worth a shot talking to your IT or software provider about upgrading that report maker so you can at least get raw data instead of some clunky old Dot Matrix Print format. The irony is that the data is stored somewhere in tables how you'd like to see it, but it gives you a terrible output, when it would be easier for you to just access the tables directly.

     

    Are you manually downloading each excel file? Or is it generated automatically as an output of some process?

  • mp13 Profile Picture
    39 on at

    Thank you for your response, I'll take a look into Dataverse and power query.

    Unfortunately, the software is pretty limited and only exports the data in this format clunky format. Indeed, it would have it stored in a better format that the software uses, but it only has one option for exporting data and the above image is what we get. 

     

    Thank you again.

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