Unanswered

Dropdown Search Functionality and Delegation Warning in Power Apps

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by tasyaaa

Hi everyone,

I'm currently developing a Power Apps application that includes a dropdown control and i've try these 2 following implementations:

1.⁠ I set the dropdown items to ⁠ Choices('datasource'.column) ⁠, which allows me to display the inventory items. However, this only permits searching by the first N entries, limiting usability for users who need to find specific items.

2.⁠ ⁠For better search capabilities, I set the dropdown items to ⁠ 'datasource' ⁠ and configured the fields property to the relevant column. This method allows to searches keywords throughout the entire list, but I encounter a delegation warning that, when clicked, does not provide any additional information (usually it highlight a code with yellow underline).

when i click the delegetion warning, it redirect the property to this:

Right now i'm still implementing the second option but I’m seeking advice on how to remove the delegation issues. Since i'm afriad that will be the issue in the future.. Is there a recommended approach to achieve this functionality while managing or eliminating the delegation warning?

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Categories:

Building Power Apps

I have the same question (0)

All responses (5)

Answers (1)

Suggested answer

jrletner 720 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (1)

Report
Dropdown Search Functionality and Delegation Warning in Power Apps

In Power Apps, the ComboBox uses the Search function to allow users to type and filter results. However, the Search function is not delegable to certain data sources, such as SharePoint. This means Power Apps can only retrieve the first 500 records from SharePoint by default. (You can increase this limit to 2,000 in the app settings.)

What does this mean?

If your data source contains 500 records or fewer, the delegation warning can be ignored because all the records will be loaded.

If your data source contains more than 500 records, only the first 500 (or up to 2,000) will be loaded, which might cause incomplete search results.

How to bypass the delegation warning:

Create a Collection: Use the ClearCollect function to load the data source into a collection when the app starts.

Set ComboBox Items to the Collection: Use the collection as the Items property of the ComboBox. This way, Power Apps operates on the local collection instead of the data source.

Although this approach doesn’t remove the 500/2,000 record limit from SharePoint, it eliminates the delegation warning because the ComboBox no longer directly interacts with the data source.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

ronaldwalcott 3,847 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

Dropdown Search Functionality and Delegation Warning in Power Apps

For better search capabilities you need to use Dataverse or some other database if your product list is more than 2000 items.

If you have no alternative but to use SharePoint. You can create several collections and copy the products into them, say in groups of 500, then create a search form which allows you to search the collections using functions such as StartsWith and In. You would then use the returned product value from the form to lookup, populate or perform whatever functionality that you require. I don't know how quickly populating the collections and the search would take you would have to test to see if it is acceptable, but seeing as the collection searches are in memory they should execute quickly.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
WarrenBelz 152,845 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (1)

Report

Dropdown Search Functionality and Delegation Warning in Power Apps

Hi CU27090221-0

This blog of mine may be useful to you here - you simply cannot search more than 2,000 items (I am assuming you are using SharePoint here).

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
tasyaaa 63 on at

Like (0)

Report

Dropdown Search Functionality and Delegation Warning in Power Apps

Hi @WarrenBelz , yes, I'm using SharePoint list. With your approach, users can only search using the first keyword of the item, right? However, I need to create a function that allows users to type any keyword contained in the app (whether it's the latest keyword or in the middle).

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

WarrenBelz 152,845 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (0)

Report

Dropdown Search Functionality and Delegation Warning in Power Apps

Hi @tasyaaa

If you have less than 4,000 items, you can do a collection as per this blog of mine, or use Power Automate as per this video to retrieve a bigger collection, Note that both will have a performance detriment and updating complexity to some extent. As I mentioned earlier, you cannot use a "wildcard" search directly on a SharePoint List over 2,000 items and receive the full result.

Please click Does this answer your question if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider giving it a Like.
MVP (Business Applications) Visit my blog Practical Power Apps

Was this reply helpful? Yes No