ADF Contain function with Arrays

Question

Hi there,

It seems that the Azure Expression documentation and the actual implmentation is incorrect for the contains expression.

Per documentation (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/control-flow-expression-language-functions#contains), the second parameter on the parameter lists specify that the type of data can be a 'String, Array or Dictionary, respectively'.

But when using the 'Set Variable' block as a test with the expression @contains(createArray(XXX), createArray(XXXX)), the expression would return false even thou both arrays are the same.

This code works:

{  
    "name": "Set variable1",  
    "type": "SetVariable",  
    "dependsOn": [],  
    "userProperties": [],  
    "typeProperties": {  
        "variableName": "TrueFalse",  
        "value": {  
            "value": "@contains('hello world','hello')",  
            "type": "Expression"  
        }  
    }  
}  

While this would fail:

{  
    "name": "Set variable1",  
    "type": "SetVariable",  
    "dependsOn": [],  
    "userProperties": [],  
    "typeProperties": {  
        "variableName": "TrueFalse",  
        "value": {  
            "value": "@contains(createArray('teammembership'),createArray('teammembership','fctg_user_spokenlanguage','processstage','fctg_fctg_destination_fctg_consultantprofile','fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_productcat', 'fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_spokenlang','activityparty','arb_incident_fctg_quote'))",  
            "type": "Expression"  
        }  
    }  
}  

This would also fail (flipping parameter A and parameter B):

{  
    "name": "Set variable1",  
    "type": "SetVariable",  
    "dependsOn": [],  
    "userProperties": [],  
    "typeProperties": {  
        "variableName": "TrueFalse",  
        "value": {  
            "value": "@contains(createArray('teammembership','fctg_user_spokenlanguage','processstage','fctg_fctg_destination_fctg_consultantprofile','fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_productcat', 'fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_spokenlang','activityparty','arb_incident_fctg_quote'), createArray('teammembership'))",  
            "type": "Expression"  
        }  
    }  
}  

Answer 1

Hi @Kengie Ho ,
Thankyou for using Microsoft Q&A platform and posting your query.
As per my understanding about your query , contains function in ADF is not working as expected and as is mentioned in the Microsoft documentation.
I tried to repro the same scenario as you did. I created a variable with the datatype as 'boolean' and when I use set variable and supply array in both 'collection' and 'value' ,it returns False for the expression:

@contains(createArray('teammembership','fctg_user_spokenlanguage','processstage','fctg_fctg_destination_fctg_consultantprofile','fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_productcat', 'fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_spokenlang','activityparty','arb_incident_fctg_quote'), createArray('teammembership'))  

whereas when I supply 'collection' as array and 'value' parameter as string , it returns True for the expression:

@contains(createArray('teammembership','fctg_user_spokenlanguage','processstage','fctg_fctg_destination_fctg_consultantprofile','fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_productcat', 'fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_spokenlang','activityparty','arb_incident_fctg_quote'), 'teammembership')  

However, in the first case the reason it gave false is because in example you are looking for an "array" inside the "array of strings". so in simple True is expected in the following case: [['teammembership'],'fctg_user_spokenlanguage','processstage'..] where it does not contain 'teammembership' but ['teammembership'].

So this is the correct code you need to use:

@contains(createArray(createArray('teammembership'),'fctg_user_spokenlanguage','processstage','fctg_fctg_destination_fctg_consultantprofile','fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_productcat', 'fctg_fctg_consultantprofiles_fctg_spokenlang','activityparty','arb_incident_fctg_quote'), createArray('teammembership'))  

Hope this will help. Please let us know if any further queries.

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