No more quotes for Power Fx column names

No more quotes for Power Fx column names

Until recently, there would be a certain subset of functions were you would need to enter the names of the column within double quotes. Starting with the latest version of Canvas Studio (version 3.24042), there will be a syntax change as to how the column names will be displayed within function arguments.

Today, column names are wrapped within double quotes as a text string, but starting with the upcoming release of Canvas Studio, they will no longer require to be inside double quotes. Microsoft will automatically update the syntax in existing apps to reflect these changes and all existing apps will continue to operate without any changes.

The functions that will be impacted by these changes include: AddColumns, DropColumns, RenameColumns, ShowColumns, Search, GroupBy, Ungroup and DataSourceInfo

The examples in the table below show how these changes prior to the new release and after the release:

Before version 3.24042After version 3.24042
AddColumns(Weight, “Kilograms”, Pounds * 2.20462262)AddColumns(Weight, Kilograms, Pounds * 2.20462262)
DropColumns(Weight, “Kilograms”)DropColumns(Weight, Kilograms)
RenameColumns(Weight, “Kilograms”, “Kg”)RenameColumns(Weight, Kilograms, Kg)
ShowColumns(Weight, “Kg”)ShowColumns(Weight, Kg)

The following change also introduces the ability to use display names from Dataverse. For example if we have a name field in Dataverse and previously we would need to use a logical name with the search function, we will now be able to use the display name (shown below

Before version 3.24042After version 3.24042
Search(Person, txtName.Text, “ppx_firstname”, “ppx_lastname”)Search(Person, txtName.Text, ‘First Name’, ‘Last Name’)

For more information about this change, see blog post by Greg Lindhorst on the Microsoft Power Apps blog.