List Operations In Desktop Flow Using Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate, is a software by Microsoft for automation of recurring tasks. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform line of products together with products such as Power Apps and Power BI. More Details here.

Desktop flows are the existing robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities in Power Automate and enable to automate all repetitive desktop processes. More Details here.

Lists are collections of items. Depending on the types of the individual list items, there can be lists of text values, lists of numerical values, and so on. The list data type is the equivalent of a single-dimension array in programming terms.

The important List Operation Actions are,

• Create new list - Create a new empty list
• Add item to list - Append a new item to a list
• Clear list - Remove all items from a list
• Sort list - Sort the items of a list. Use items of the same type
• Shuffle list - Create a random permutation of a list
• Reverse list - Reverse the order of the items of a list

Reading this article, you can learn how to use List Operations in Desktop flow using Microsoft Power Automate.

The following important tools are required for developing Microsoft Power Automate,

1. Windows 10/11 (Recommended)
2. Power Automate Desktop - Download the Power Automate installer

Now we can discuss step by step App development.

Step 1

Open Microsoft Power Automate -> New Flow

Next, Give the Flow name as PADListOperation, Click the Create button,

After that, we are able to see the Desktop flow,

Step 2

For Testing List Operations, First, Add the Create new list action,

Set the Variables produced parameter as %ListOperation % in Create new list action and click Save,

Next, Add the Loopsaction, Set the Start from parameter as 1, End to parameter as 5 and Incremented by 1 in Loopaction and click Save,

Next, add the Generate Random Number action, set the Minimum Value Parameter as 0, Maximum Value parameter as 5 and Variables produced parameter as RandomNumber and click Save,

Next, Add the Add item to list action, Set the Add item parameter as RandomNumber, Into list parameter as %ListOperation% in Add item to list action and click Save,

For displaying result, add the Display message action, set the Message box Title parameter as Display List Operations, Message to display parameter %ListOperation% and click Save,

For sorting the List, add the Sort list action, and set the List to sort parameter as %ListOperation% and click Save,

For Displaying Sorted List, Add the Display message action, Set the Message box Title parameter as Display Sort List, Message to display parameter %ListOperation% and click Save,

For Reversing the List, Add the Reverse list action, and Set the List to reverse parameter as %ListOperation% and click Save,

For displaying reverse List, add the Display message action, Set the Message box Title parameter as Display Rev List, Message to display parameter %ListOperation% and click Save,

For Shuffling the List, Add the Shuffle list action, and Set the List to shuffle parameter as %ListOperation% and click Save,

For Displaying Shuffle List, Add the Display message action, Set the Message box Title parameter as Display Shuffle List, Message to display parameter %ListOperation% and click Save,

For Clearing the List, Add the Clear list action, and Set the List to clear parameter as %ListOperation% and click Save,

For Displaying Clearing List, Add the Display message action, Set the Message box Title parameter as Display Clear List, Message to display parameter %ListOperation% and click Save,

Now, save the PADListOperation Desktop Flow,

Step 3

Now we can run your PADListOperation Desktop Flow in Microsoft Power Automate, and the output of the PADListOperation is,

Summary

Now you have successfully tested List Operations in Desktop flow - PADListOperation in Microsoft Power Automate.