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How do I get rid of brackets and speech marks that are automatically being inserted into my text field?

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Posted on by Bernicle

Hi, I am very new to power automate and flows. I have managed to follow some tutorials and created a simple flow that works.

People fill in an online form and the data is sent to an Excel file, the flow then uploads the text fields into a share point list.

However, it is adding the following in certain areas in Excel, which is fine, but I dont want it uploaded into the share point list with the brackets, semi-colons or speech marks etc.

Example of Excel text: Help in the Home or Garden;Social and Community Support;Personal Care;

Example of what is being uploaded to sharepoint list: ["Help in the Home or Garden","Social and Community Support","Personal Care"]

What I need it to look like is this: Help in the Home or Garden, Social and Community Support, Personal Care

Can anyone help me please? I have tried to follow some other issues like this but I cant seem to figure out what to type out in the expressions/control box when I add one.

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abm abm 32,985 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @Bernicle

Try the following

Expression I used above is:

replace(replace(replace(string(outputs('Compose')),'"', ''),'[',''),']','')

Thanks

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jiwhite 500 on at

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Another option is to use the Apply to each connector to cycle through the array and append the strings together as desired.

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Bernicle 14 on at

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@abm Morning! thanks, this may be a silly question but do I add the compose boxes at the end of my flow or after the Get response details one? Im so sorry, I really am a novice on this stuff.
I have done your solution after the end of my flow and it didnt remove the brackets, so it makes me think I am meant to add the boxes somewhere else in the flow?

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abm abm 32,985 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @Bernicle

Could you post a screenshot of your flow please? Flow runs are sequential. So you can't add at the end of your flow.

Thanks

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jiwhite 500 on at

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There seems to be a limit on the number of replaces that you can nest together. I've had to use string variables and pass the string through multiple set variables until the data is how I want it. Keep in mind that you cannot assign a string variable to itself, so you will need 2 string variables if you want to pass a string more than once.

Input string: ["Help in the Home or Garden","Social and Community Support","Personal Care"]
First replace: replace(variables('strStart'),'"','')
Second replace: replace(variables('strReplace1'),'[','')
Third replace: replace(variables('strReplace2'),']','')
Output string: Help in the Home or Garden,Social and Community Support,Personal Care

To do this with a loop:
The condition is intReplaces = length(variables('arrStart')).

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Bernicle 14 on at

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Bernicle 14 on at

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Hiya,
I will give yours a try, thank you for this.

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Bernicle 14 on at

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@abm & @jiwhite
Thanks for your suggestions, sadly I couldnt get it to work from either and I expect thats more to do with me rather than the suggestions.
Just wanted to thank you both for your time.
Cheers.

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