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Import tab separated file into instant flow (manually trigger a flow)

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Posted on by Josephkm_lim

Hi,

I imported a tab-separated file into an instant flow. However, instead of the text, I am seeing a string of gibberish characters. How can I do to get the actual text as seen in the file?

Thanks in advance!

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Building flows

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v-xiaochen-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @JLKM ,

You could use base64toString function.

Best Regards,

Wearsky

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Josephkm_lim 64 on at

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HI Wearsky

Unfortunately, this didn't work.

Now I wonder if it has something to do with the file encoding. I just noticed that my file (when opened with Notepad) is of UTF-16 instead of UTF-8?

Would you know anything about this?

Thanks a mil!

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v-xiaochen-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @JLKM ,

Yes, the root cause is the utf-16.

At my knowldege , powerautomate cannot process utf-16 files.

Best Regards,

Wearsky

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Josephkm_lim 64 on at

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Hi Wearsky

Do you know if there is any way or function to decode?
After using decodeBase64(), I got another set of gibberish like this:

Is it possible to decode this?

Thank you

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v-xiaochen-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @JLKM ,

As far as I know, power automate can display Utf-8 encoded strings. So when your text file is in utf-16 encoded format, it will parse it incorrectly, i.e. garbled.

Maybe some 3rd party connectors or apis support utf-16.

Best Regards,

Wearsky

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Josephkm_lim 64 on at

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Hi Wearsky

Found this thread: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Parse-CSV-error/td-p/1315339

So, I tried Sharepoint 'Create file' action with the triggerBody()?['file']?['contentBytes'] and a different file name and a .txt extension. Then 'Get file content' with the Id from Create file. I was able to see the content as intended, no more garbled.

Is there a way to change the extension on the fly without going through Sharepoint or OneDrive?

Thanks

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v-xiaochen-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @JLKM ,

Smart solution! I think It uses sharepoint api to convert utf-16 text files to utf-8 encoding format in flow.

To be honest, I don't have a better idea.

Best Regards,

Wearsky

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