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Select step value now outputting string despite expression converting to float

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Posted on by aaaaaaaa2

This flow has been working for months now; however, after updating it in the new year it's no longer working. Normally I'd expect it to be a mistake I made, but it's instead the behaviour of a Select step that I did not change that is causing the flow to error.

Previously, the Select step would output a float in the value of several of the key / value pairs by taking a string from the prior Parse JSON step and converting it to a float using the float() function. It now for some reason will only output a string. This is happening to every numeric value. Why is this step now only outputting strings?

The function in one of the values of the Select step that checks for null otherwise (should) convert to float:

Here's the expression in text form:

if(equals(replace(item()['Title'],'%22',''),''),null,float(replace(item()['Title'],'%22','')))

Select step input:

Select step output before breaking:

Select step output after breaking:

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aaaaaaaa2 16 on at

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Re: Select step value now outputting string despite expression converting to float

Ah, I've solved it!

If you edit the Select step in text mode, you'll find the value has been wrapped in double quotes! Removing these double quotes fixes the problem.

I think this might be an issue with the Select statement in the V3 editor as I never had to do this previously. Apologies if I'm reporting a bug in the wrong place.
aaaaaaaa2 16 on at

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Re: Select step value now outputting string despite expression converting to float

Simplest way to replicate problem.

1. Create an Excel spreadsheet with a column of numbers, and create a table for the column.
2. Upload the spreadsheet to SharePoint.
3. Create a manually triggered flow.
4. Add a List rows present in table step against that spreadsheet's table.
5. Add a Parse JSON step against the output of previous step.
6. Add a Select step against the output of previous step, with the single key value pair of the one column in the JSON output. Give it any key name and for the value, attempt to convert the single column JSON value to either an int or float using the respective functions.

It won't work anymore. The output of the Select statement is always a string.
aaaaaaaa2 16 on at

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Re: Select step value now outputting string despite expression converting to float

I've tried testing this with a freshly built flow that only goes up to the problem point and only Selecting that single Title column.

The behaviour of the Select action has definitely changed recently. Doesn't appear to now be possible to convert string data types to int or float using an expression within the Select action values. Perhaps it's now hard setting the output data type to the input's? Seems like a bug.

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