Ignore the character and only include number in substring

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Posted on by Iantaylor2050

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I have written below power automate to retrieve the AIS number and get count

substring(item()?['Subject'], indexOf(item()?['Subject'], 'AIS'), 7) 
This retrieves the AIS number correctly. For example subject: AIS1758 Queens Walk retrieves the substring as AIS1758 which is correct
 
However some subject has below content
 
A new AIS Opportunity is created 
As per above code, it retrieves the substring AIS Opp which is incorrect. May i know how should i modify the above code such that it retrieves only the substring which has AIS numbers and not AIS characters followed by it. 

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Ellis Karim 12,046 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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@Iantaylor2050,

You maybe able to use the startsWith function, if the line will always start with AIS:

This expression checks if the string variable myText begins with the characters "AIS". If it does, it returns the first word (everything before the first space), and if it does not, it returns a null value.

if(startsWith(variables('myText'),'AIS'), first(split(variables('myText'),' ')),null)

Optional: If you want to check if the text contains numbers (integers), you can use a more complex expression: this strips the "AIS" prefix (e.g. from AIS1758) and checks if the remaining characters (e.g., "1758") is a valid integer:

isInt(if(startsWith(variables('myText'),'AIS'), split(first(split(variables('myText'),' ')),'AIS')?[1], null))

Next, this condition checks if the output from the Compose action contains a valid value; if it is not null, it displays "Found it" alongside the value, otherwise, it outputs "Failed to find it".

It seems that your text is coming from an email? If that is the case, you can add a filter to check if the email subject starts with AIS using a trigger condition:

@startsWith(triggerBody()?['subject'], 'AIS')

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

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11manish 1,851 on at

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Try below :

In Microsoft Power Automate, you need to check that characters after “AIS” are numbers.

Recommended Expression

if(
and(
contains(item()?['Subject'], 'AIS'),
isInt(substring(item()?['Subject'], add(indexOf(item()?['Subject'], 'AIS'), 3), 4))
),
substring(item()?['Subject'], indexOf(item()?['Subject'], 'AIS'), 7),
''
)

Thanks
Manish

Visit my blog : https://powerappbuilder.blogspot.com/

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Haque 2,282 on at

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For experiment I just assinged the subject string in a variable. The first screen is chekcing the string "A new AIS Opportunity is created" if it finds no digits renturns empty string.

Input: "A new AIS Opportunity is created"

Output is: empty string (''), you will see nothing in the output field. Please see the output below:

Input : “AIS1758 Queens Walk”

Here is my expression, again I used variable [variables('DigitAIS')] string to do experiment, replace yours with Subject string (item()?['Subject']).

if( greaterOrEquals(indexOf(variables('DigitAIS'), 'AIS'), 0), if( greaterOrEquals( indexOf('0123456789', substring(variables('DigitAIS'), add(indexOf(variables('DigitAIS'), 'AIS'), 3), 1)), 0 ), substring(variables('DigitAIS'), indexOf(variables('DigitAIS'), 'AIS'), 7), '' ), '' )

Yours should be:

if( greaterOrEquals(indexOf(item()?['Subject'], 'AIS'), 0), if( greaterOrEquals( indexOf('0123456789', substring(item()?['Subject'], add(indexOf(item()?['Subject'], 'AIS'), 3), 1)), 0 ), substring(item()?['Subject'], indexOf(item()?['Subject'], 'AIS'), 7), '' ), '' )

Now based on the emptiness you can ignore the next flow action or proceed.

I am sure some clues I tried to give. If these clues help to resolve the issue brought you by here, please don't forget to check the box Does this answer your question? At the same time, I am pretty sure you have liked the response!

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trice602 16,164 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Here's the regex solution also. I like to go this route because regex can handle so many different things, including subject parsing.

Create a new sheet, with a table, can be empty.

Then create a new script until the tab "Automate".

Paste in script.

/** * Returns the first AIS number found in the subject in the format AIS + digits. * Examples: * - "AIS1758 Queens Walk" => "AIS1758" * - "A new AIS Opportunity is created" => "" * - "AIS01820 Something" => "AIS01820" */ function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook, subject: string): string { if (!subject) return ""; // Case-insensitive match of AIS followed immediately by one or more digits const match = subject.match(/AIS\d+/i); const result = match ? match[0].toUpperCase() : ""; return result; }

And here is the config for the Run script action.

------------------------------------------------

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Always glad to help! 💯💯💯💯💯

Tom

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Iantaylor2050 601 on at

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Hi @Haque

Thanks. I am able to filter out the unnecessary ones.

May i know how to remove the blank item from the array? I used below code but it doesn't work.

@and(equals(item(), items('Apply_to_each_3')),equals(empty(item()), false))

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Haque 2,282 on at

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Hi @Iantaylor2050,

Could you please elboarte a bit? It would be better if you could post me how the blan items are there in the array item (in your case) so that I can write the logic?

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