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Renamed columns

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Posted on 28 Mar 2020 01:44:59 by Community Power Pla...

Hi,
I have a question, could renaming columns in sharepoint be a problem on the datatables, gallerys, collections and forms in PowerApps?.

I created nine sharepoint list and I need renamed them all and also renamed a few columns...but I am concerned that this would affect the function of the application

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mdevaney 29,987 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 30 Mar 2020 at 04:33:14

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Re: Renamed columns

@v-xida-msft
I’ll test my idea again in the morning but for now it seems like the original poster of the question has had a similar experience to me...

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v-xida-msft on 30 Mar 2020 at 04:25:40

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Re: Renamed columns

Hi @mdevaney ,

I think you have some misunderstanding with the column reference of SP List in PowerApps canvas app.

Within canvas app, it reference the column value from SP list data source using internal name rather than display name. When you refresh the SP List data source within your canvas app after you made some changes in your SP list, the canvas app would refresh the internal column name reference from SP List.

When you go to your List Settings, then select the specific field, the internal column name would be like below:

Best regards,
mdevaney 29,987 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 30 Mar 2020 at 04:09:51

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Re: Renamed columns

@v-xida-msft
Can you please test the recommendation you gave:

“As an fixed solution, you need to edit your canvas app, the refresh the SP List data source manually, then make your formulas within your app apply to your modified columns in your SP List.”

In my experience this is not correct. Refreshing an app after changing column names in SharePoint has no impact. Please let me know if I was mistaken when making my original post.

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v-xida-msft on 30 Mar 2020 at 03:23:06

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Re: Renamed columns

Hi @Anonymous ,

If you just want to rename column names in your SP list itself, the columns reference within your canvas app would not be refreshed immediately, it would remain the original columns there.

As an fixed solution, you need to edit your canvas app, the refresh the SP List data source manually, then make your formulas within your app apply to your modified columns in your SP List.

If you want to display different column names as your SP List within your canvas app, I think you could consider rename your columns within your canvas app itself directly (as I mentioned above).

Thank you @mdevaney for your reminding.

Best regards,
mdevaney 29,987 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 30 Mar 2020 at 02:53:49

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Re: Renamed columns

@v-xida-msft

I think you might have misread the question. The original poster is asking what will happen when they rename the columns in SharePoint. Their question does not appear to be about RENAMECOLUMNS or renaming columns within PowerApps.

Just thought I should point that out. I'm not trying to be rude or anything but I don't want the original poster to become confused.

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v-xida-msft on 30 Mar 2020 at 02:44:16

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Re: Renamed columns

Hi @Anonymous ,

Renaming columns in a SP List data source (using RenameColumns function) would not affect the functions in your canvas app.

Actually, the RenameColumns function would just return a new temporary table with the transform applied, the underlying table/original table would not be changed/modified.

Please check the following article for more details about the RenameColumns function:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/functions/function-table-shaping#description

But there are some limits within the RenameColumns function -- the RenameColumns function is not a Delegable function in PowerApps app. The RenameColumns function could only process 2000 records at most from your data source. If the amount of your SP List is more than 2000, the RenameColumns function could only process first 2000 records, the rest of records in your SP List would be ignored.

Note: Please change the "Data row limit for Non-delegable queries" option to maximum value -- 2000 within Advanced settings of App settings.

If the amount of your SP List records is more than 2000, you could consider bulk-load your SP List records into a collection, then use the collection as data source in your app instead of your original SP List. Please check and see if the following thread could help in your scenario:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Discussion/Pulling-in-large-ish-SQL-tables/m-p/243777#M71518

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/Loading-60-000-SharePoint-List-Items/m-p/448633/highlight/false#M133427

Best regards,
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mdevaney 29,987 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 28 Mar 2020 at 02:20:34

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Re: Renamed columns

@Anonymous

Fortunately, renaming the columns in SharePoint won't affect your app. Once a column is named it always maintains the same name "in the background."

However, it does get confusing when coding the PowerApp going forward. Lets say you renamed the column "MyColumn1" to "YourColumn1". PowerApps would still recognize it as "MyColumn1" when making references to it in your code. This is all to say... you'll be fine. Just watch out for this.

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