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Struggling with extracting text from an email subject line

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Posted on by chumproast

Hi,

I've found several examples and video tutorials about the split function and using it to separate/extract values from an item, but I just cant seem to figure out how to apply it to my situation.

I have an "When a new email arrives" trigger based on a subject filter, and then a planner task is created using the subject as the title.

However, there is a lot of extraneous info in the subject line I would like to strip out for the task title. The format of the subject is something like:

Subject: New Request #111 assigned to My Team, Add user to X

And all I really want to make the task from is the part after the comma, "Add user to X".

Can someone explain or provide an example of how that should look, and how it should be entered into the title field of the "Create a task" action?

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Building flows

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,315 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @chumproast

Super simple, you could do it in the Name field or from a Compose and lets rename it to Split Subject

So lets say I add a Compose (after the email comes in) In the Expression for the Compose you would do something like this split(PutTheSubjectDynamicPropertyHere, ',')

This will give you back a small Array of the 2 pieces and we want the second one.

Now in the Name field or whatever it goes put the expression

trim(Outputs('Split_Subject'))[1]

This will take the second split value, which is the part you wanted and remove any trailing or ending spaces.

If I have helped you, I would really appreciate if you please Mark my answer as Resolved/Answered, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others

Cheers

Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

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chumproast 34 on at

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Errror with my flow trying to follow these steps. I bet I'm close!

I understand the function and syntax with the split command in compose (and why I couldnt do this on my own since I was trying to include it as part of the create planner task action), but how is trim supposed to work?

I think it's because you made a mention to "name the compose", which I assume should be what trim is referencing ('Split_Subject') but I'm not sure how I would add a name/title to my compose step. I tried:

trim(outputs('Compose'))[1]

But that failed with the error:
The provided parameters for the template language function 'trim' are not valid.'.

Your help is appreciated.

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chumproast 34 on at

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Ok, it's actually more simple than I thought. @FLMike got me over my confusion, and then trial, lots of error, and searching around lead me to the solution.

Adding a compose action to split the subject line using the comma as the delimiter:

split(triggerOutputs()?['body/subject'], ',')

and then in the create planner task action, the title only needs the correct output from the compose action in order to function correctly (no trim needed)

outputs('Compose')[1]

And my task is being created with the correct title in Planner.

Thanks again for your help.

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,315 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hmm so @chumproast

essentially you did what I said to do, then gave yourself credit.. gotcha..

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chumproast 34 on at

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Uh.. you suggested using the trim function, which didn't work?

I discovered it wasn't needed, I simply had to output the result of the compose action and posted that as the correct solution.

But if something like "credit" for a solution is that big of a deal to you...

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