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Find leading words in a string in a calculated field in a Dataverse table

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Posted on by gpgeorge

I need to check book titles to determine whether they start with "The " or "A ".

It seems impossible. I can find "The" and "A", but that includes other words, such as "Theory" or "Access", which I don't want.

Is it possible to use TrimLeft to find "The " or "A "? If not, what workarounds are available.

This will result in a sortable field that doesn't put all of the titles that start with "A " at the top and "The " together in latter part of the list.

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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AhmedSalih 6,680 Moderator on at

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@gpgeorge, are you using the StartsWith( Text, StartText )?

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gpgeorge 48 on at

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I didn't see that option. I'll look again, though, thanks.

The option I did see in the calculated field editor was "BeginsWith", which doesn't accept the trailing spaces.

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gpgeorge 48 on at

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This is what I can see in the Calculated Field editor.
Note that if I try to include a trailing space after The, I either get a syntax error or it is trimmed off.

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AhmedSalih 6,680 Moderator on at

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@gpgeorge, Okey, a work around will be using a Power Automate Flow that is triggered when Dataverse record is Added, Modified, and use this expression to update the value of a Text Column in your table:

Or(startsWith(variables('varString'),'The '),startsWith(variables('varString'),'A '))

Note, the result of this formula is true or false. If it starts with "The " or "A ", it will give you true, else it will give you false.

Regards,
Ahmed
If my reply helped you, please give a 👍. And if it has solved your issue, please consider Accept it as the Solution to help other members in the community find it more.

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gpgeorge 48 on at

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Thank you, I was resigned to a work-around. I will try this and report back on how it works out.

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