Power Automate split() Function: Split a String Into an Array (With Examples)

If I look back at the flows I’ve built over the past few years, a surprising number of them start by breaking a piece of text apart. A Microsoft Forms question returns several choices in one comma-separated answer. A SharePoint column holds email addresses separated by semicolons. An email body needs to be processed line by line, or a file name needs its extension checked before the flow decides what to do with it.

All of these jobs come down to the same function: split(). It’s simple once you’ve used it a couple of times, but there are a few traps, especially with line breaks and empty values, that trip up almost everyone at first.

Quick answer: split('text', 'delimiter') returns an array of the pieces between each delimiter. For example, split('Apps,Automate,BI', ',') returns ["Apps","Automate","BI"]. Get one piece with first(), last() or an index such as [1], and split on a new line with decodeUriComponent('%0A').

In this tutorial, I’ll explain the syntax and then walk through the splits I use most often, each with the exact expression, so you can copy it straight into your own flow.

split() syntax

The function takes two values: the text you want to split, and the character or characters to split it on.

split('<text>', '<delimiter>')

Parameter	What to enter
text	The string to split, usually dynamic content, a variable or a Compose output
delimiter	The character to split on, in single quotes, such as ',', ';' or ' '

The result is always an array, even if the delimiter doesn’t appear in the text (you then get an array with one item). One behaviour to remember is that empty pieces are kept, so split('a,,b', ',') returns ["a","","b"]. You’ll find the details in the split() reference on Microsoft Learn. Power Automate uses the same expression language as Azure Logic Apps, and text values always go in single quotes, never double quotes.

Example 1: Split a string by a word or character

Let’s start with the simplest case. Create an instant cloud flow with the Manually trigger a flow trigger, so you can test it with one click. Then add an Initialize variable action, set Name to Text and Type to String, and enter the text you want to split in Value.

Next, add a Compose action and enter this expression in Inputs. Here I’m splitting on the word and, to show that the delimiter doesn’t have to be a single character:

split(variables('Text'), 'and')

Save and test the flow. The Compose output is an array containing the text before and after each and:

Example 2: Split by comma, semicolon or space

In real flows, the delimiter is usually a comma, a semicolon or a space. Only the second value of the expression changes:

split(variables('Names'), ',')
split(variables('Emails'), ';')
split(variables('FullName'), ' ')

For example, splitting a full name on a space gives you the first name and the last name as separate items:

Watch out for values separated by a comma and a space, such as Amy Jackson, David Henry. Splitting on the comma alone leaves a space at the start of every piece after the first, which can break comparisons later. You can either split on both characters, split(variables('Names'), ', '), or tidy each piece with a Select action that uses the split result in From and trim(item()) in Map.

Example 3: Split by new line

Text from a multiple-lines column, an email body or a long Forms answer is full of line breaks, and splitting it into lines is one of the most common requests I get. It’s also where most people get stuck, because typing '\n' in an expression doesn’t give you a line break. Power Automate treats it as two ordinary characters, a backslash and the letter n, so the split finds nothing.

The reliable way is to create the line break with decodeUriComponent(), where %0A is the code for a line feed:

split(outputs('Compose'), decodeUriComponent('%0A'))

There’s one more wrinkle. Text that comes from Windows or Outlook often has a carriage return before each line feed (%0D%0A), which leaves an invisible character at the end of every line. To handle both formats, remove the carriage returns first and then split:

split(replace(outputs('Compose'), decodeUriComponent('%0D'), ''), decodeUriComponent('%0A'))

Here’s a Compose action with text on several lines, and the array you get after splitting it:

Example 4: Get the first, last or Nth item

Often you don’t need the whole array, just one piece of it. Because split() returns an array, you can pick a piece directly in the same expression. This table uses the text San Francisco,Seattle,Boston:

You want	Expression	Result for ‘San Francisco,Seattle,Boston’
First item	first(split(variables('Cities'), ','))	San Francisco
Last item	last(split(variables('Cities'), ','))	Boston
Second item (index starts at 0)	split(variables('Cities'), ',')[1]	Seattle
Number of items	length(split(variables('Cities'), ','))	3
All items except the first	skip(split(variables('Cities'), ','), 1)	[“Seattle”,”Boston”]

Be careful with fixed positions. An index like [2] makes the flow fail if the text has fewer than three pieces, which happens more often than you’d expect with user input. Check the length first: if(greater(length(split(x, ',')), 2), split(x, ',')[2], '').

A handy use of last() is getting a file extension. last(split(triggerOutputs()?['body/{FilenameWithExtension}'], '.')) returns pdf for Report.final.pdf, because it takes the text after the last dot, however many dots the name contains.

Example 5: Split a string into an array and loop through it

Sometimes text contains several records, each with several fields, such as Employee Name:David:25 | Employee Name:Henry:32. The approach is to split twice: first into records, and then each record into its fields.

Add a Compose action with the string. Then add an Initialize variable action with Type set to Array, and use this expression as the Value, which splits the text into one item per employee: split(outputs('Compose'), '|').

Now add an Apply to each action and select the array variable. Inside the loop, add a Compose action with split(trim(items('Apply_to_each')), ':'). The trim() removes the spaces around each record before the second split.

Each run of the loop now has a small array for one employee, such as ["Employee Name","David","25"], so you can use outputs('Compose_2')[1] for the name and [2] for the age.

Remove empty items after a split

Because split() keeps empty pieces, text such as a,,b, gives you blank items, which then create empty rows or failed actions further down the flow. The cleanest fix is a Filter array action. Set From to split(variables('Text'), ','), and set the condition to item() is not equal to with the right side left empty. The Filter array output contains only the pieces that have text in them.

Split on several delimiters

There’s no way to give split() more than one delimiter at once. When your text mixes separators, for example commas, semicolons and pipes, replace them all with a single delimiter first and then split:

split(replace(replace(variables('Text'), ';', ','), '|', ','), ',')

Join the pieces back together

join() does the opposite of split(): it turns an array back into text, with a delimiter between the items. I use the two together most often for email recipients, where a comma-separated list needs to become a semicolon-separated one:

join(split(variables('Emails'), ','), ';')

split() vs Split On vs Split text

Three features in Power Automate have “split” in their name, and they’re easy to confuse in search results. Here’s how they differ:

Feature	Where	What it does
split() function	Expressions in cloud flows	Splits text into an array inside one flow run
Split on setting	Trigger settings	Starts a separate flow run for each item of an array the trigger returns (for example rows from a trigger)
Split text action	Power Automate for desktop	Splits text by Space, Tab, New line, a custom delimiter or a regular expression, and returns a list

These Power Automate string and array guides go well with split():

• Power Automate String Functions + 10 Examples
• Power Automate substring() Function [How to Use]
• Power Automate slice() Function – How to Use
• How to Use Power Automate trim() Function?
• How to Convert an Array to a String in Power Automate [3 Different ways]
• How to Extract String After Character in Power Automate?

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