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Update single SharePoint multiple choice column with Power Automate

Posted on June 23, 2021February 2, 2022 by Tom

“The HTTP request works fine for update of single selection columns, but what about multiple selection choice column, how can I update it in Power Automate?”


If you build flows on big SharePoint lists with many columns, it might be challenging to update the items. Especially if the list contains many mandatory columns. The standard Power Automate action ‘Update item’ will ask you to update all the mandatory fields and it doesn’t matter that you want to update just a single column. That’s why it’s useful to use HTTP request to update only that one column. I already wrote about the request in general and how to update people picker column. This post will show you how to update another “special” column, the multiple choice column.

HTTP request to update multiple choice column

The HTTP request is the same as for the other SharePoint columns, the difference is again only in the <ValueToUpdate> part.

Method: POST

Uri: _api/web/lists/GetByTitle('<ListName>')/items(<ItemID>)/validateUpdateListItem

Body:
{
    "formValues":[
	{
	    "FieldName": "<FieldToUpdate>",
	    "FieldValue": "<ValueToUpdate>"
	}
    ]
}

If it was a single choice column, or if you updated only 1 choice, you’d use the value directly.

"FieldValue": "Choice 1"

But if it’s a multiple choice column and you want to update multiple choices, you must place them all into the <ValueToUpdate>. And you must use the right format for it. The validateUpdateListItem function expects the values separated by ;#.

"FieldValue": "Choice 1;#Choice 2"

It’s important to notice that it’s just a string, not an array like when updating for example multiple people picker. Even if the source of the values is an array, you must convert the array into a string separated by ;#.

Power Automate update multiple choice column

SharePoint will translate the ;# as a separator between choices and select them in the item.

Summary

Using the HTTP request can save you a lot of work, but it’s not always easy to understand its input. But once you get the right format, you can use Power Automate to update the multiple choice column too. In this situation it’s the unique separator ;# between the multiple choice values.


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Do you struggle with the various expressions, conditions, filters, or HTTP requests available in Power Automate?

I send one email per week with a summary of the new solutions, designed to help even non IT people to automate some of their repetitive tasks.

All subscribers have also access to resources like a SharePoint Filter Query cheat sheet or Date expressions cheat sheet.

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Hello and welcome!

My name is Tom and I'm a business process automation consultant and Microsoft MVP living in the Czech Republic. I’ve been working with Microsoft technologies for almost 10 years, currently using mainly Power Automate, SharePoint, Teams, and the other M365 tools.

I believe that everyone can automate part of their work with the Power Automate platform. You can achieve a lot by "clicking" the flows in the designer, but you can achieve much more if you add a bit of coding knowledge. And that's what this blog is about.

To make the step from no-code Power Automate flows to low-code flows: using basic coding knowledge to build more complex yet more efficient flows to automate more of your daily tasks.

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