Get the list of names via Get Metadata activity

Question

Hi All,

Below is the output of Get Metadata activity which contains name and type values for child items:

Is it possible to just get the name values and stored within an array variable without using any iteration.

Output = [csv1.csv,csv2.csv,csv3.csv,csv4.csv]

This was achieved by using ForEach and append variable, we dont want to use Iterations.

Answer 1

Hey Priya,

In addition to what @AnnuKumari-MSFT mentioned to be a clear way of splitting the file names ,

You can also try the below crude way of converting the array into string and then replacing the values

1st Set variable activity :

@split(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(string(activity('Get Metadata1').output.childItems),'[{',''),'}]',''),'{',''),'}',''),'"type":"Folder"',''),'"type":"File"',''),'"',''),'name:',''),',,',','),',')

2nd Set variable activity :

@take(variables('af'),add(length(variables('af')),-1))

where af is an array variable set in the initial one

Answer 2

Hi Priya Jha ,

Thankyou for using Microsoft Q&A platform and thanks for posting your question here.

As I understand your question, you want to retrieve the name of files without iterating over the output json of get metadata activity. Please let me know if that is not the ask here.

You can use a sql db/ azure sqb db connector in lookup activity to perform this job using openJSON function .

declare @output varchar(max)

set @output ='@{activity('Get Metadata1').output.childitems}'

select concat('[',string_agg(filename,','),']')  as fileName from OpenJson(@output)

with(filename varchar(100) '$.name')

You can checkout this video for details about openJson function .

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