Finds one or more records in a table.

Description

The Filter function finds records in a table that satisfy a formula. Use Filter to find a set of records that match one or more criteria and to discard those that don't.

The LookUp function finds the first record in a table that satisfies a formula. Use LookUp to find a single record that matches one or more criteria.

For both, the formula is evaluated for each record of the table. Records that result in true are included in the result. Besides the normal formula operators, you can use the in and exactin operators for substring matches.

Fields of the record currently being processed are available within the formula. You simply reference them by name as you would any other value. You can also reference control properties and other values from throughout your app. For more details, see the examples below and working with record scope.

The Search function finds records in a table that contain a string in one of their columns. The string may occur anywhere within the column; for example, searching for "rob" or "bert" would find a match in a column that contains "Robert". Searching is case-insensitive. Unlike Filter and LookUp, the Search function uses a single string to match instead of a formula.

Filter and Search return a table that contains the same columns as the original table and the records that match the criteria. LookUp returns only the first record found, after applying a formula to reduce the record to a single value. If no records are found, Filter and Search return an empty table, and LookUp returns blank.

Tables are a value in PowerApps, just like a string or number. They can be passed to and returned from functions. Filter, Search, and LookUp don't modify a table. Instead, they take a table as an argument and return a table, a record, or a single value from it. See working with tables for more details.

Delegation

When possible, PowerApps will delegate filter and sort operations to the data source and page through the results on demand. For example, when you start an app that shows a Gallery control filled with data, only the first set of records will be initially brought to the device. As the user scrolls, additional data is brought down from the data source. The result is a faster start time for the app and access to very large data sets.

However, delegation may not always be possible. Data sources vary on what functions and operators they support with delegation. If complete delegation of a formula isn't possible, the authoring environment will flag the portion that can't be delegated with a warning. When possible, consider changing the formula to avoid functions and operators that can't be delegated. The delegation list details which data sources and operations can be delegated.

If delegation is not possible, PowerApps will pull down only a small set of records to work on locally. Filter and sort functions will operate on a reduced set of records. What is available in the Gallery may not be the complete story, which could be confusing to users.

See the delegation overview for more information.

Syntax

Filter( Table, Formula1 [, Formula2, ... ] )

  • Table - Required. Table to search.
  • Formula(s) - Required. The formula by which each record of the table is evaluated. The function returns all records that result in true. You can reference columns within the table. If you supply more than one formula, the results of all formulas are combined with the And function.

Search( Table, SearchString, Column1 [, Column2, ... ] )

  • Table - Required. Table to search.
  • SearchString - Required. The string to search for. If blank or an empty string, all records are returned.
  • Column(s) - Required. The names of columns within Table to search. Columns to search must contain text. Column names must be strings and enclosed in double quotes. However, the column names must be static and cannot be calculated with a formula. If SearchString is found within the data of any of these columns as a partial match, the full record will be returned.

Note: For SharePoint and Excel data sources that contain column names with spaces, specify each space as "_x0020_". For example, specify "Column Name" as "Column_x0020_Name".

LookUp( Table, Formula [, ReductionFormula ] )

  • Table - Required. Table to search. In the UI, the syntax is shown as source above the function box.
  • Formula - Required. The formula by which each record of the table is evaluated. The function returns the first record that results in true. You can reference columns within the table. In the UI, the syntax is shown as condition above the function box.
  • ReductionFormula - Optional. This formula is evaluated over the record that was found, and then reduces the record to a single value. You can reference columns within the table. If you don't use this parameter, the function returns the full record from the table. In the UI, the syntax is shown as result above the function box.

Examples

The following examples use the IceCream data source:

Formula Description Result
Filter( IceCream, OnOrder > 0 ) Returns records where OnOrder is greater than zero.
Filter( IceCream, Quantity + OnOrder > 225 ) Returns records where the sum of Quantity and OnOrder columns is greater than 225.
Filter( IceCream, "chocolate" in Lower( Flavor ) ) Returns records where the word "chocolate" appears in the Flavor name, independent of uppercase or lowercase letters.
Filter( IceCream, Quantity < 10 && OnOrder < 20 ) Returns records where the Quantity is less than 10 and OnOrder is less than 20. No records match these criteria, so an empty table is returned.
Search( IceCream, "choc", "Flavor" ) Returns records where the string "choc" appears in the Flavor name, independent of uppercase or lowercase letters.
Search( IceCream, "", "Flavor" ) Because the search term is empty, all records are returned.
LookUp( IceCream, Flavor = "Chocolate", Quantity ) Searches for a record with Flavor equal to "Chocolate", of which there is one. For the first record that's found, returns the Quantity of that record. 100
LookUp( IceCream, Quantity > 150, Quantity + OnOrder ) Searches for a record with Quantity greater than 100, of which there are multiple. For the first record that's found, which is "Vanilla" Flavor, returns the sum of Quantity and OnOrder columns. 250
LookUp( IceCream, Flavor = "Pistachio", OnOrder ) Searches for a record with Flavor equal to "Pistachio", of which there are none. Because none were found, Lookup returns blank. blank
LookUp( IceCream, Flavor = "Vanilla" ) Searches for a record with Flavor equal to "Vanilla", of which there is one. Since no reduction formula was supplied, the entire record is returned. { Flavor: "Vanilla", Quantity: 200, OnOrder: 75 }

Search user experience

In many apps, you can type one or more characters into a search box to filter a list of records in a large data set. As you type, the list shows only those records that match the search criteria.

The examples in the rest of this topic show the results of searching a list, named Customers, that contains this data:

To create this data source as a collection, create a Button control and set its OnSelect property to this formula:

ClearCollect( Customers, Table( { Name: "Fred Garcia", Company: "Northwind Traders" }, { Name: "Cole Miller", Company: "Contoso" }, { Name: "Glenda Johnson", Company: "Contoso" }, { Name: "Mike Collins", Company: "Adventure Works" }, { Name: "Colleen Jones", Company: "Adventure Works" } ) )

As in this example, you can show a list of records in a Gallery control at the bottom of a screen. Near the top of the screen, you can add a Text input control, named SearchInput, so that users can specify which records interest them.

As the user types characters in SearchInput, the results in the gallery are automatically filtered. In this case, the gallery is configured to show records for which the name of the customer (not the name of the company) starts with the sequence of characters in SearchInput. If the user types co in the search box, the gallery shows these results:

To filter based on the Name column, set the Items property of the gallery control to one of these formulas:

Formula Description Result
Filter( Customers, StartsWith( Name, SearchInput.Text ) ) Filters the Customers data source for records in which the search string appears at the start of the Name column. The test is case insensitive. If the user types co in the search box, the gallery shows Colleen Jones and Cole Miller. The gallery doesn't show Mike Collins because the Name column for that record doesn't start with the search string.
Filter( Customers, SearchInput.Text in Name ) Filters the Customers data source for records in which the search string appears anywhere in the Name column. The test is case insensitive. If the user types co in the search box, the gallery shows Colleen Jones, Cole Miller, and Mike Collins because the search string appears somewhere in the Name column of all of those records.
Search( Customers, SearchInput.Text, "Name" ) Similar to using the in operator, the Search function searches for a match anywhere within the Name column of each record. Note that you must enclose the column name in double quotation marks.

You can expand your search to include the Company column as well as the Name column:

Formula Description Result
Filter( Customers, StartsWith( Name, SearchInput.Text ) || StartsWith( Company, SearchInput.Text ) ) Filters the Customers data source for records in which either the Name column or the Company column starts with the search string (for example, co). The || operator is true if either StartsWith function is true.
Filter( Customers, SearchInput.Text in Name || SearchInput.Text in Company ) Filters the Customers data source for records in which either the Name column or the Company column contains the search string (for example, co) anywhere within it.
Search( Customers, SearchInput.Text, "Name", "Company" ) Similar to using the in operator, the Search function searches the Customers data source for records in which either the Name column or the Company column contains the search string (for example, co) anywhere within it. The Search function is easier to read and write than Filter if you want to specify multiple columns and multiple in operators. Note that you must enclose the names of the columns in double quotation marks.