Issues with a Canvas App feeding into an Excel spreadsheet

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Posted on 25 Oct 2023 14:38:26 by EWebber

Hello,

I'm building my first Power App and have it connected to an Excel spreadsheet. I have three issues with this currently:

#1 - It seems that regardless of how I have the spreadsheet sorted, when I submit the form data from the Edit Form, it creates a new record at the bottom of the spreadsheet leaving all rows above it blank. I want to know how to correct this so that it uses the next available row (from the top) to create the record.

#2 - Along those lines, I have multiple screens in the app for entering data with each screen's fields mapped to their own fields on the spreadsheet. The problem is, when I click on the Submit button on each screen, it creates a new record (row) on the spreadsheet. I want to be able to combine all the data from all the screens (there are 5 total) onto one record (row) on the spreadsheet and I don't know how to do that.

#3 - Finally, I am using a date picker on one screen and have it defaulting to today's date. However, when I submit, it shows up in the spreadsheet as 1/1/1970. I'm not sure how to correct this.

Any help from this community would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Eddie

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EWebber 2 on 25 Oct 2023 at 15:26:05

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Re: Issues with a Canvas App feeding into an Excel spreadsheet

Thank you SongYe! I might need a little more step-by-step on these though, if you can, as I am new to Power Apps and feeling my way around. I would sure appreciate it!
SpongYe 5,580 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 25 Oct 2023 at 15:21:50

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Re: Issues with a Canvas App feeding into an Excel spreadsheet

Hi @EWebber

I’ll try to help you with your issues as best as I can.

#1 - This is a known limitation of the Excel connector. It appends new records to the end of the table, regardless of the sorting order or blank rows. I would suggest to use Power Automate to move the new records to the desired position after they are created.

#2 - This is because each submit button is using the SubmitForm function, which creates a new record in the data source. To avoid this, you need to use the Patch function instead, which allows you to update an existing record or create a new one if it doesn’t exist. You can use a global variable to store the record ID of the first screen, and then use it to patch the subsequent screens.

#3 - This is likely due to a mismatch between the date format in your app and in your Excel file. You need to make sure that both formats are compatible, such as using the same locale or time zone. You can use the Text function in Power Apps to format the date value before submitting it to Excel. You can also use the Format Cells option in Excel to change the date format of your column.

If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know. Have a great day! 😊

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