Update Data Table Items using Power Automate Desktop

One of my clients asked us to update items in a data table using Power Automate Desktop. It is easy to update the value of a single item. Still, when dealing with multiple items in a data table, there is no direct way to retrieve the row index of a data table that updates the values of multiple items.

In this tutorial, I will tell you an effective way to achieve this. This tutorial will cover how to update a single item in the data table using Power Automate Desktop. Additionally, I will also cover how to update multiple data table items in Power Automate desktop.

Update Item in Data Table using Power Automate Desktop

Below, I have a data table with the Product details values. Suppose I wanted to update the item ‘Product Stock for Pen Driven’ from 15 to 100 in the data table.

Keep in mind that the update data table item updates values based on the row index and column index, which start from 0.

Here are the quick steps to update an item in the data table:

1. Add the Update data table item action to the workspace. Set the parameters below.
   • Data table: Click on {X}-> Select Data Table variable.
   • Column: Provide column index of a value [Starts from 0]. In my case, it is 2, because I wanted to update the Product Stock value.
   • Row: Enter Row index value [Starts from 0]. I will enter the value as three because the “Pen Drive” product is present in row 3.
   • New value: Provide the value that you wanted to update.

Now, save and run the flow.

2. When the flow executes successfully, right-click the ‘Open Flow’ variable present on the right side and select ‘Data table’. You can see that the data table item value has been updated.

You can also check: Update SharePoint List Item by Power Automate

Update Data Table Item using Power Automate Desktop Based on Condition

Let’s see how to update multiple items in a data table based on a condition by using Power Automate desktop.

Suppose, let’s assume you have a Data table like below with the following values, and you wanted to update the ‘In Stock’ column value to ‘Need to Restock‘ if the Product Stock is less than 50.

The data table item values will be updated based on the row index and column index, which start from 0.

However, we cannot directly retrieve the row index of a data table from any dynamic content. So, use a Set variable action to set the value to 0 and then increase it to 1. This will give the row index.

As you already know, to create a data table in the Power Automate desktop, let’s start from the steps below:

1. Following the Create new data table action, add the “Set variable” action, which represents the row index of a data table. Click on the Save button to save the action.
   • I have renamed the Variable name to Index.
   • Value: Enter the value to 0.

2. To get all the items present in a data table, drag and drop a “For each” loop into the workspace. This iterates over the list of items in a data table, allowing the execution of a block of actions inside the loop repeatedly.
   • Value to iterate: Click on {x} -> Select DataTable variable.
   • Store into: I have renamed ‘CurrentItem’ to ‘CurrentRow’.

Click on Save.

3. Inside the loop, add an “If condition” action that will check “Product Stock < 50”. This updates the item if the specified condition in the statement is met.
   • First operand: Select the CurrentRow variable from the For each loop. Then, within brackets, enter the column index.
   • Operator: Select the operator based on your requirement.
   • Second operand: Enter the value. In my case, I was taking 50.

Save the action to the workspace by clicking on the Save button.

4. Inside the if condition, add the “Update the data table item” action in the workspace. Set the parameters below.
   • Data table: Click on {X}-> Select Data Table variable.
   • Column: Provide column index of a value [Starts from 0]. In my case, it is 4, because I wanted to update the ‘In Stock’ column value.
   • Row: Click on {X}-> Select Index variable.
   • New value: Harcode the value to ‘Need to Restock’

5. Below the if condition, inside the For each loop, drag and drop the ‘Increase variable‘ action to increase the Index. This will increment the row index each time the for-each loop runs. Set the parameters and click on Save.
   • Variable name: Select the Index variable.
   • Increase by: Enter the value by 1.

6. Now save the flow. You can see the complete flow in the screenshot below.

7. When the flow executes successfully, right-click the ‘Open Flow’ variable present on the right side and select ‘Data table’. You can see that the data table item values have been updated.

This way, you can update items in the data table using Power Automate Desktop.

In this tutorial, you have learnt two different ways to update the data table items in Power Automate Desktop.

I hope you found this article helpful. If you have any comments or feedback, please share them in the comments section.

You may also like the following Power Automate Desktop tutorials:

• Power Automate Desktop Flow Examples
• Connect Power Automate Desktop to Cloud Flow
• Power Automate Update SharePoint List Item
• Extract Tables from PDF by Power Automate Desktop

Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.