Dataflows for Power Apps: transform fixed-width text files

What is a fixed width text file? Data in a fixed–width text file is arranged in rows and columns, with one entry per row. Each column has a fixed width, specified in characters, which determines the maximum amount of data it can contain. No delimiters are used to separate the fields in the file.

Could we load data from a fixed-width file with dataflow? Absolutely!

This file below is relatively simple. The one for my real life project was really nasty. But let’s have a look at the sample below to understand the idea.

This is the fixed-width text file I created for this tutorial:

Mapping for this file will be like:

Column Name	Field Position	Type
Clinic Name	1-98	CHAR(98)
Address	99-150	CHAR(52)
Suburb	151-200	CHAR(50)
State	201-229	CHAR(29)
Post Code	230-233	CHAR(4)

Let’s create a dataflow to load this file.

I uploaded my text file to OneDrive.

Select “–Fixed width–” option for Delimiter.

Have a look at the mapping above to understand the idea.

And the ned result looks really good.

It is so simple! I didn’t think the same way when I looked at the file first. It looked as a very tricky thing to do. Yet it’s achieved without any coding.

Have you started using dataflows yet?