Mastering Power Automate: A Comprehensive Guide to Flattening Nested Arrays

Welcome to today's tutorial on how to efficiently flatten or explode nested arrays in Power Automate. In this video, we'll cover advanced techniques that involve the use of my favourite action, "Select," and some string manipulation methods.

We'll start by understanding the structure of a nested array and how we can transform it into a new array, where each object corresponds to a unique product ID. Traditionally, this process would involve using nested 'apply to each' loops, but we'll explore a more efficient approach that can handle large data sets without consuming excessive API calls.

During the course of the video, I will demonstrate two different techniques: a traditional one using nested apply to eaches and a more advanced one using string manipulation and the select action. The latter technique only requires six actions and is scalable to work across massive data sets.

Finally, I will show you how this data can be written into an Excel table, ensuring the correct transformation and organization of the data.

Remember, this technique can also be used with data from various sources such as Dataverse, SharePoint, or third-party APIs.

[00:00] Introduction: Overview of the tutorial on how to efficiently flatten or explode nested arrays in Power Automate.

[00:49] Understanding the requirements of a nested array: Dive into the structure of a nested array and discuss the transformation process into a new array where each object corresponds to a unique product ID.

[03:42] A basic flow with nested apply to each: Demonstration of the traditional method of using nested 'apply to each' loops to flatten or explode arrays.

[05:23] Using Select and stringified JSON for an efficient flow: Introduction to a more advanced technique using the Select action and string manipulation methods. This technique only requires six actions and is scalable to work across massive data sets.

[17:40] Writing data to Excel: Show how the transformed data can be written into an Excel table, ensuring the correct organization of the data.

[18:50] Learn about writing data to Excel efficiently: Discussion on how to write data to excel efficiently using either the Graph API or Office Scripts.

[19:50] Join data efficiently: Introduction to an efficient way to join arrays without using an apply to each loop.

[20:30] Outro: Wrapping up the tutorial, encouraging viewers to like, subscribe, and leave their thoughts in the comment section.

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