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Seeking to go from Good to Great - Using Patch function OnChange of user inputs

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Posted on by CU23082138-1

Hello!

So I created my fist app! It is actually pretty simple. In short, it is a Microsoft form with some nice bells, whistles, and a different UI than MS Forms.

One of the things I did was leverage the out of the box "Help" screen that Powerapps offers. I then took this logic to create my Turbotax-like form experience.

The working version that I have as an MVP uses Patch for every user input OnChange. It is working just fine with only 1 error when I was testing quickly from input to input. So my main question is, how can I do this better? I feel like I am Patching the SharePoint list too often. Below is an example of the patch function, there are probably 50ish throughout the app.

If(IsBlank(rad_MI_Answer4.Selected.Value),"",Patch(Assessment,LookUp(Assessment,User().Email=user_email),{mi_answer_4:rad_MI_Answer4.Selected.Value}));

Anyway, looking forward to hearing your thoughts and please let me know if I can help articulate this better. I am a noob after all 🙂

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Building Power Apps

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mmbr1606 14,629 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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hey @Joework

can you try this please:

onchange of input field

Collect(ChangesCollection, { Field: "mi_answer_4", Value: rad_MI_Answer4.Selected.Value, Email: User().Email });

onselect of button:

ForAll(ChangesCollection as Change, Patch( Assessment, LookUp(Assessment, User().Email = Change.Email), { mi_answer_4: Change.Value } ) ); Clear(ChangesCollection);

Let me know if my answer helped solving your issue.

If it did please accept as solution and give it a thumbs up so we can help others in the community.

Greetings
CU23082138-1 20 on at

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Hi @mmbr1606

Thank you for this solution! It looks like it will certainly reduce the number of times I am patching my SP list. In general, do you feel this approach is best practice?

Also, can you help describe what this code does? Here is my assumption. You are collecting the inputs from the user each time they enter data and placing in a temp table / cache. Later on, once they click a button, all of the data collected to that point is patched to the SP list.

Did I get that right? It always helps me when I understand the "plain English" explanation of what is going on behind the scenes. Thanks!
mmbr1606 14,629 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hey @Joework

I cant tell u if its best practice everybody would agree on xD but if it works it cant be bad i guess

Short explanation:

The combined logic of these scripts allows for a temporary collection of field changes tied to user inputs, which are then committed in bulk when a button is clicked. This can help optimize performance by reducing the number of direct writes to the data source and provides a way to batch process updates efficiently.

Let me know if my answer helped solving your issue.

If it did please accept as solution and give it a thumbs up so we can help others in the community.

Greetings
CU23082138-1 20 on at

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Awesome! Thank you for your help. @mmbr1606