I recently created an office expense tracker form in Power Apps, which is used to track office expenses. Office expenses must be used for valid items like computer accessories, office furniture, etc.
I converted the Title field in the Power Apps form to a dropdown to control users who enter invalid items. Thus, users will only select valid items in the form.
In this article, I will show you how to convert a Text box to a dropdown in Power Apps.
Convert Text Box to Dropdown in Power Apps
In Power Apps, we can convert text input control to dropdown control in two ways. I will explain both ways with a single example.
Convert Text Box to Dropdown in Power Apps[By Changing Data type]
I have a SharePoint list named Office Expense Tracker to store the details submitted in the Power Apps form.
This list has the following fields.
| Column Name | Data Type |
|---|---|
| Items | Title(Single line of text) |
| Description | Multiline of text |
| Amount | Currency |
| Date | Date and time |
| Category | Choice |
Follow the steps below to achieve this!
1. Connect with the SharePoint list in Power Apps.
2. Add Edit form from +Insert tab -> After connecting form with SharePoint list -> Select Fields -> Open Title field -> In Control type ->Open the down arrow next to Edit text -> Select Allowed values.
3. Look at the image below. The Title text box is converted to dropdown control in the Power Apps form.
4. Now, we need to provide values for this dropdown. In the Items property of the title dropdown, give the list below.
["Office Furniture","Computer Accessories","Cleaning Supplies","Printer Ink","Stationery","Printer Ink","Coffee and snacks"]
5. Look at the image below; I got values in the title dropdown field in the Power Apps form.
This way, we can convert the text box into a dropdown in Power Apps form.
Convert Text Box to Dropdown in Power Apps[Replace Dropdown with Text Box]
Firstly, we changed the text box control type to Allowed values, which means dropdown. Here, we see the second way of doing this.
1. Like in the above, connect Power Apps with the SharePoint list. Then, add the Edit form and unlock all data cards.
2. Then, add a Dropdown control within the Title text box.
3. Now, remove the title data card value; you’ll receive some errors like the one below.
4. To solve the errors, change the Update property of the Title data card to the below formula.
drp_Title.Selected.Value
This formula will update the dropdown selected value while submitting.
5. To solve another error, change the dropdown name in place of the error you’re getting. Refer to the example below.
6. Now, save the changes and add a button control to submit the data to the SharePoint list. For that, add the formula below to the OnSelect property of the submit button.
SubmitForm(Form1)This formula will submit the form details to the SharePoint list.
7. Save and preview the app. The submitted data is stored in the SharePoint list.
We can also use a dropdown instead of a text input control like this. However, in the main SharePoint list, the field data type remains a Single line of text.
I hope you found this article helpful. You can follow it while you’re trying to convert the text input field in the Power Apps form to a dropdown control.
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Preeti Sahu is an expert in Power Apps and has over six years of experience working with SharePoint Online and the Power Platform. She is the co-author of Microsoft Power Platform: A Deep Dive book. As a Power Platform developer, she has worked on developing various tools using Power Apps and Power Automate. She also makes Microsoft 365 videos and shares them on YouTube.
