Rajeev Pentyala – Microsoft Power Platform

If you are a ‘Power Apps’ beginner and wonder how to declare and use variables like the way you do in any of your favorite programming language (C#, Java, PHP, etc..) this article is for you.

Before we jump in to ‘Power Apps’ Variables, lets first understand following things:

• ‘Power Apps’ is different and works more like Excel.
• Power Apps and Excel both automatically recalculate formulas as the input data changes, without the need of Variables.
• In below screen,
  • Sum of A and B is being calculated and set to the Label just by summing up the Text values directly like a formula.
  • If either A or B value changes, Label will recalculate the value.

Why we need variables in ‘Power Apps’?

• In general, its recommended to avoid using variables in Power Apps.
• But sometimes only a variable can enable the experience you want.
• To understand this, lets tweak the previous screen by adding a Button and Sum up the values on button click.

• Here we can’t use formulas (i.e., Like screen 1) to calculate the Sum because its value depends on button Click.
• We require a variable to hold the Sum before its set to the Variable to display.

Types of Variables:

Power Apps has three types of variables:

Global Variable:

• You set the value of the global variable with the Set function.
  • Set( Var_Name, 0 ) sets the global variable to a value of 0.
• Global variables can hold any value, including strings, numbers, records, and tables
• In my example, on ‘OnSelect’ of ‘Calculate’ button, using ‘Set’ function, I am setting Sum of txt1.Text and txt2.Text to a Global variable ‘globalVar‘.

• And setting the ‘Text’ of ‘Label’ to Global variable ‘globalVar‘.

•  Global variable scope is ‘App’ level, can be references from anywhere in the app. Which means, I can read the ‘globalVar‘ from a different screen (i.e., Screen2).

Context Variable:

You implicitly establish and set context variables by using the UpdateContext or Navigate function.

UpdateContext:

• UpdateContext( { Var_Name: 0} ) sets the context variable to a value of 0.
• Context variables can hold any value, including strings, numbers, records, and tables
• In my example, on ‘OnSelect’ of ‘Calculate’ button, using ‘UpdateContext’ function, I am setting Sum of txt1.Text and txt2.Text to Context variable ‘ctxVar‘.

• And setting the ‘Text’ of ‘Label’ to Context variable ‘ctxVar‘.

• ‘OnSelect’ of ‘Clear Context Variable’ button, I am setting ‘ctxVar‘ to 0.

• Context variable set using ‘UpdateContext’ function’s scope is ‘Screen’ level, can only be references with in the screen.

Navigate:

• You can also set a context variable when you use the Navigate function to show a screen.
• In the example below, lets add a new button ‘Navigate to Screen2’ and on ‘OnSelect’, navigate to ‘Screen2’ by passing ‘ctxvar‘ as argument.
  • Navigate(Screen2,ScreenTransition.Fade,{ctxvar:txt1.Text+txt2.Text})

• On ‘Screen2’ set the Label’s text to ‘ctxvar’.

• Run the application, click on ‘Navigate to Screen2’

• On the ‘Screen2’ we get ‘ctxvar’ value displayed in label.

• Important thing to notice is, Except for Navigate, context variables are limited to the context of a single screen, which is where they get their name. You can’t use or set them outside of this context.

Use Collection:

• Collection holds a table that is easy to modify.
• Create and set collections by using the ClearCollect function.
  • You can use the Collect function instead, but it will effectively require another variable instead of replacing the old one.
• In my example, on ‘OnSelect’ of ‘Add to Collection’ button, collect the ‘txt1.Text’ values to a collection ‘collSum‘ using Collect(collSum,txt1.Text)

• We clear the Collection ‘collSum‘ using Clear(collSum) function.

• To display the ‘collSum’ values, add a ‘DataTable’ control and set ‘Data source’ to ‘collSum’.

• Run the application and keep adding the values. You should see collection values in a table as below.

Notes:

• You can see the Variables and Collection on the File menu of your App.

• If you give a context variable the same name as a global variable or a collection, the context variable takes precedence. However, you can still reference the global variable or collection if you use the disambiguation operator @[Var_Name].
• All variables are held in memory while the app runs. After the app closes, the values that the variables held are lost.
• When the user opens the app, all variables have an initial value of blank.

🙂