#PowerPlatformTip 24 – ‘Merge arrays or tables’

💡 Challenge

Ever find yourself wanting to merge two arrays in Power Automate but need to keep those duplicates? The union function removes duplicates, preventing you from retaining all elements.

✅ Solution

Concatenate the arrays with a unique delimiter and then split the resulting string back into an array, preserving duplicates.

🔧 How It’s Done

Here’s how to do it:

1. Conjure Your Arrays Together
   🔸 Use the concat function to merge both arrays into one.
   🔸 Includes duplicates in the merged array.
2. Add a Unique Delimiter ‘||’
   🔸 Use '||' to mark the boundary between arrays.
   🔸 Ensures you can split back correctly.
3. Split to Reveal
   🔸 Apply the split function with '||' to recreate the array.
   🔸 Duplicates are preserved in the final output.

split(
  concat(
    join(outputs('Compose_-_2_arrays')?['array1'], '||'),
    '||',
    join(outputs('Compose_-_2_arrays')?['array2'], '||')
  ),
  '||'
)

🎉 Result

You can now merge arrays or tables in Power Automate and keep all duplicates, giving you full control over your data.

🌟 Key Advantages

🔸 Preserves duplicates when merging arrays.
🔸 Simple, no-code solution using built-in functions.
🔸 Flexible for arrays or tables of any size.

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🛠️ 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.

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