📝 TL;DR
Ever find yourself wanting to merge two arrays in Power Automate, but you hit a snag because you need to keep those pesky duplicates? If you’ve tried the union function, you know it’s a neat trick for merging arrays, but alas, it leaves behind any duplicates, aiming for uniqueness like it’s going out of style.
💡 Challenge
Ever find yourself wanting to merge two arrays in Power Automate, but you hit a snag because you need to keep those pesky duplicates? If you’ve tried the union function, you know it’s a neat trick for merging arrays, but alas, it leaves behind any duplicates, aiming for uniqueness like it’s going out of style.
✅ Solution
Fear not! There’s a workaround that’s not just a workaround, but a magic trick waiting to be performed. It involves a bit of array alchemy—concatenating the arrays and then pulling a “now you see me, now you don’t” with the duplicates.
🔧 How It’s Done
Let’s break down the spell:
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Conjure Your Arrays Together: Use the concat function to merge your two arrays into one. Think of it as inviting all the elements to a grand ball, duplicates included.
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**The Secret Sauce – ‘ ’:** To keep track of where one array ends and the other begins, we use a unique delimiter, ‘ ’. This is like giving each guest at the ball a unique mask. -
Split to Reveal: Now, the grand finale. Use the split function to turn this merged string back into an array, using the same ‘ ’ delimiter to remove the masks and reveal the identities of all your elements, duplicates proudly standing.
Here’s the incantation:
split( concat( join(outputs(‘Compose_-2_arrays’)?[‘array1′],’||’), ‘||’, join(outputs(‘Compose-_2_arrays’)?[‘array2’],’||’)), ‘||’)
🎉 Result
Voilà! You’ve mastered the art of merging arrays while honoring the presence of duplicates. This isn’t just merging; it’s merging with style and intelligence.
🌟 Key Advantages
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Inclusivity: Every element gets to join the party, duplicates don’t get left out in the cold.
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Flexibility: Adjust the formula to fit your specific scenario, whether it’s for simple lists or complex data structures.
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Power: Empowers you to manipulate data in ways that standard functions don’t directly allow.
Merge arrays, keep the duplicates, and do it all with a flourish. This tip isn’t just a solution; it’s a performance. Enjoy the show!
🎥 Video Tutorial
🛠️ FAQ
1. What happens if my array contains values that include the delimiter ‘||’?
Choose a unique delimiter that doesn’t appear in your data, or use a more complex delimiter like ‘###DELIMITER###’.
2. Can this method handle arrays with different data types?
Yes, but ensure all values can be converted to strings for the join operation, then convert back to appropriate types if needed.
3. Is there a performance impact when merging large arrays?
For very large arrays, consider using the union() function for simple merging without duplicates, or batch processing for better performance.
Marcel Lehmann
Microsoft MVP
