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Can't open Excel with a dynamic file name

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Posted on by trichmond

I'm working on a flow to download a file from a website (CSV), open it in Excel, modify it, and then email it. I am having the hardest time trying to figure out how to Launch Excel and have it open the downloaded file. The file name is created by the website.

After downloading the file, I used the Get files in the folder to get the name of the file (I didn't attempt to use the DownloadedFile variable as sometimes it's a zip). I then added the Files variable to Launch Excel (see the second snippet). I get a file-related error.

If I try it and point to the file name itself, it opens fine in the flow. I also tried it on two different machines, one Windows 10 and one 11. I initially had the folder on OneDrive then moved to my local C drive to try. Ssaved as an xlsx thinking maybe the CSV format was the issue. Nothing seems to help.

Any help would be much appreciated as I've only just started to use PAD

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Power Automate Desktop

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Henrik_M 2,021 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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%Files% is a list, so you have to provide an index for the expression to return a singular file:

%Files[0]%

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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For get files make sure you say sort by date last modified descending

then the last downloaded file is %Files[0]% which is the first file of %Files%. You don’t need the folder in Launch Excel Document Path. A file type variable by default has the file path, file name, and extension all in one string.

just put %Files[0]% in there and you will be good to go.

you may need a workaround if it is a zip files such as:

if %Files[0].Extension% = zip

Unzip folder to %UnzippedFolder%
Get files from %UnzippedFolder%
end (if)

then do your launch excel with %Files[0]%

Good luck!

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trichmond 14 on at

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Not sure how to delete a reply as I typed it up before seeing the other solutions.

So I just cleared out. Thanks again

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trichmond 14 on at

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The path being included was the issue. Thanks so much for the index and the path fixes!

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