How to Sort PDF Files Alphabetically (Descending) Before Displaying in Dropdown via Adaptive Card?

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by RG-03061342-0

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on a Power Automate flow that reads PDF files from a SharePoint folder and displays them in a dropdown menu within an Adaptive Card in a Power Virtual Agent.

The flow works and the files are listed correctly – however, I’d like to sort the filenames alphabetically in ascending order before showing them in the dropdown. So far, my approach looks like this:

List folder (using "Get files")
Filter array – Only keep items where Name ends with .pdf
Build array – Map each item with title = Name, value = Name
Compose – Assemble the JSON string for the Adaptive Card dropdown

Is there a simple way to sort the array of PDF filenames in ascending (A to Z)?

Any tips on how to best integrate the sorting step into this flow would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Categories:

Building flows

I have the same question (0)

All responses (1)

Answers (0)

Suggested answer

Ellis Karim 11,691 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (2)

Report
Hi

You can use the following parameters to sort the output of the Get Files action by filename, in ascending order:

Filter Query substringof('.pdf', FileLeafRef) and FSObjType eq 0 Order By FileLeafRef asc

In the filter query we need to use the Document Library’s internal name FileLeafRef - which gives us the name of the file including its extension.

The substringof function return all items where the file name (FileLeafRef) contains the text ".pdf". The function endswith() is not supported, so we can't use it in the query

FSObjType eq 0 will return Files only

FileLeafRef asc - sorts the output by filename, in ascending order.

Then, you could use the Filter Array action "Only keep items where Name ends with .pdf" - as a quality check.

For more info, see:

Power Automate: Get Only Files (Exclude Folders) from a SharePoint Library – Ellis Karim's Blog

How to Find the Internal Name of a SharePoint Column (Step-by-Step Guide) – Ellis Karim's Blog

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

Was this reply helpful? Yes No