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Backtracking to find a source field for a lookup field in a table.

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Posted on by ShadyCheech

Developers,

I am fairly new to Dataverse but not new to Power Apps (intermediate level). I have a PA app with a backend table which is fed by another table created by a different developer. Is there a way to find which source fields feed in the fields I have on my table? Please see illustration below as an example:

Is there a way for me to find out which cell is the "A" cell by looking at my table where the "B" cell is located? I saw on a post where someone said they found it under "add existing relationship", but none were listed when I clicked it. Maybe that was referring to another issue? Thanks in advance for your help.

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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gulshankhurana 1,397 Moderator on at

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Hi @ShadyCheech

There are two options you could try:
1. Identify the field/column type of B and A. Go to Developer's table and, for all columns of the same column type, check if any columns have any dependencies to see if you can pinpoint which column has it between the two tables in question.
2. You'd need to go to Classic UI. In Classic UI, depending on whether it is 1:n or n:1 relationship, you'd need to go to the appropriate relationship (model driven app settings -> Advanced Settings -> Customizations -> Customize this System-> Entities-> Case -> '1:N'/'N:1' Relationships -> 'DevTable_YourTable'/'YourTable_DevTable' -> double-click to open) and, in the pop-up window that comes, click on 'Mappings' in the left side navigation pane. On the right side, you'd see the fields that are mapped. I suspect this field of yours will be visible there.
To give you an idea how it'd look like, here are a couple of screenshots I got from old posts:
Post: Re: Copy lookup value from Parent entity Main Form... - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

I hope this information helps:

Kind regards
Gulshan
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ShadyCheech 99 on at

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Thank you, Gulshan. Unfortunately, the developer's solution has 20+ tables and I don't know how to pinpoint which table the parent cell is located. I was hoping that there was a simple built-in function in Dataverse where you can find which table and fields feeds into another. Thank you again. I will accept as solution as I am sure this will work once I can find which tables feed one another.

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gulshankhurana 1,397 Moderator on at

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Hi @ShadyCheech

I can understand your situation and thanks for appreciating my efforts.

On a second thought, field mapping works if/when the child table record is created from within the parent table. Since you are not sure which is the source table, it could be an automation filling the value in the field in your table.
Therefore, the other thing you can try is to check the dependency on your field in question in your table (flow/workflow/plugin etc) e.g. if there is a flow connected to it then you could dig deep in that flow to see which action/step is doing the magic and which source is it picking the information from.

I hope this information helps.

Kind regards
Gulshan
Please give it a thumbs up 👍🏻 if you appreciate my efforts.
If my answer helped you resolve your issue then please also mark it as a solution ✅ so that it helps others experiencing the same problem.

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Fubar 8,338 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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You mention Lookup in the title of the post, is B a Lookup to A (or vice-versa)? if so, in the make.powerapps.com interface go to the child table and look at the column definition properties they will tell you which Table is being referenced, what you are viewing in the Lookup field is the Primary Column on that table. (Also, a Lookup field is the child i.e. the many, in a one-to-many relationship)

If other data is actually being copied, then it depends on how it is being copied, if they are using a Workflow then you can look your column and under Advanced->Dependencies (if a Workflow references it it will show as a Process) or use the Classic interface and do similar. If they are populating something via .NET code then you would have to search the code (if the field name is relatively unique this can be a quick exercise, otherwise it can be more involved and you may search for the Table name first).

If using Flow it is more involved, but you can also search you just need to export the Flows in a Dataverse solution and then unzip it - the flows will be in a subdirectory and are JSON so can text search for field name , table name.

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