#PowerPlatformTip 141: Text to Array

TL;DR: Turn a multiline text block into a loopable array in Power Automate with split(text, separator).

💡 Challenge

How do you process a copied multiline text block, each line a record (IDs, email addresses, URLs), in a Power Automate flow without splitting it by hand? Manual steps don’t scale and are error-prone.

✅ Solution

Use the split() expression to turn the multiline string into an array. With a simple separator (a line break, comma, or any character) you get an array you can loop through with “Apply to each”.

🔧 How It’s Done

1. Capture the text

🔸 Add a Compose action and paste your multiline text into it. Name it DataInput.

2. Define the separator

🔸 Add a second Compose containing only a line break (press Enter in the input). Name it Separator.

3. Loop the array

🔸 Add an Apply to each control and set its input to:

split(outputs('DataInput'), outputs('Separator'))

4. Process each line

🔸 Inside the loop, use Current item to trim, validate, call an API, or create records.

Real flow run: a 3-line block of email addresses goes in, and comes out as a clean 3-element array, alice@example.com, bob@example.com, carol@example.com, ready for “Apply to each”.

Real flow run: Code View confirms the actual expression, split(outputs('Multiline_Text_Block'), decodeUriComponent('%0A')), splitting on the newline character.

🎉 Result

Your flow now accepts any multiline text block and processes each line as a separate item. No more copy-paste, no manual cleanup, just reliable automation that scales.

🌟 Key Advantages

🔸 Saves time by automating repetitive data preparation

🔸 Flexible: works with lists from Excel, emails, Power Apps, or paste operations

🔸 Reduces human errors from manual handling

🔸 Scales to hundreds or thousands of lines without extra effort

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🎥 Video Tutorial

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🛠️ FAQ

1. What if my data is comma-separated instead of line breaks? Replace the Separator Compose content with a comma. The same split() expression produces the array.

2. Can the text originate from a Power App? Yes. Pass a multiline text input from Power Apps into the flow; the split logic stays identical.

3. How do I handle empty lines from accidental extra newlines? Add a condition inside the loop to check that trim(Current item) is not empty before processing.

🔗 Related Tips

• #PowerPlatformTip 120: PowerAutomate Text Processing 2.0, advanced text manipulation actions.
• #PowerPlatformTip 24: Merge Arrays or Tables, combine arrays after splitting.