Parse Email Subject Office 365 Flows

Parse Email Subject Office 365 Flows

I am trying to get some data parsed out of a subject line in Office 365 Flows. I have an email that has a consistent format:

Help Desk [Ticket #12345]

I want to get the number '12345' for use in later steps in the flow. So far, I've attempted to use the substring expression in a compose connector:

substring(triggerBody()?['Subject'], 20, 5)

But I get an error about the string being null.

1 Answer

Besides the index being incorrect (to retrieve '12345' from Help Desk [Ticket #12345] you need to use substring(value, 0, 5) as the index is 0-based), the expression looks correct. But you can take a step-by-step approach to see what is wrong.

To start, take a look at the flow run to see exactly what the trigger outputs are:

If you see the Subject field (as I do in my case), create a variable containing that value only to make sure that you don't have any typo:

If it works correctly, then you should see in the flow run the subject:

If everything is still good at that point, create a new variable with the substring that you want:

And again, check the value.

If you got to this point, then you should be able to retrieve the ticket id.

2

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Elena Rostova
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Elena Rostova

Elena Rostova holds a Master's degree in Public Health Journalism. She covers groundbreaking medical research, holistic wellness trends, mental health awareness, and nutritional science.