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Expression language

Text functions

Reference for the Text Functions category - join, split, format, search, clean up, match patterns and encode text.

The Text Functions category builds and cleans up text: case subjects, email bodies, reference numbers, API values. Unless a function says otherwise, non-text values you put into a text slot are converted to text, and an empty value gives empty text.

Three functions that also appear in this category, Option Label, Organization URL and Record Link, are described with Choices and records. To String is described here; the reverse conversions are on Conversion.

Build text

Section titled “Build text”

Concatenate

Section titled “Concatenate”
Concatenate(value1, value2, …)Returns Text

Joins two or more values into one text.

Parameter Type Required Description
Values Any Yes, at least two The values to join, in order. Non-text values are converted to text.
  • Empty values add nothing. You never see the word “null” in the result.
  • Add separators such as spaces or commas as Text constants between the values.

Examples

  • Concatenate(firstname, " ", lastname) gives “Nancy Davolio”.
  • Concatenate("CASE-", ticketnumber) builds a reference for an email subject.

Format

Section titled “Format”
Format(template, value1, …)Returns Text

Fills a template with values. Use it when the text has a fixed shape with several values in the middle.

Parameter Type Required Description
String To Format Text Yes The template. {0} is replaced by the first value, {1} by the second, and so on.
Values Any Yes The values for the placeholders, in order. Converted to text.
  • A placeholder that has no matching value, such as {2} when you give only two values, fails the run.
  • To show a literal brace, double it: {{ shows {.

Example: Format("Opportunity {0} for {1} closes on {2}", name, Customer.name, estimatedclosedate).

Join

Section titled “Join”
Join(list, separator)Returns Text

Joins the items of a list into one text.

Parameter Type Required Description
List List of any type Yes The items to join.
Separator Text No Placed between items. Without it, items are joined with nothing in between.
  • Items are converted to text as in Concatenate.
  • Empty items are skipped, so you never get “Golf, , Sailing”.
  • A missing list gives empty text.

Examples

  • Join(OptionLabel(new_interests), ", ") turns a multi-select choice into “Golf, Sailing”.
  • Join(Split(emailaddresses, ";"), ", ") tidies a semicolon-separated list of addresses.

Pad Left / Pad Right

Section titled “Pad Left / Pad Right”
PadLeft(text, totalLength, padCharacter)Returns Text
PadRight(text, totalLength, padCharacter)Returns Text

Adds characters to the start (Pad Left) or end (Pad Right) of a text until it reaches a length.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to pad. A number is converted to text.
Total length Whole Number Yes The length you want.
Pad character Text No The character to add. Defaults to a space. Only the first character is used.
  • Text that is already long enough is returned unchanged. It is never cut.

Example: PadLeft(SequenceNumber, 6, "0") turns 42 into “000042” for an invoice number.

Section titled “Measure and search”

String Length

Section titled “String Length”
Length(text)Returns Whole Number

Returns the number of characters in a text. Shown as Length in the outline.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to measure.
  • Empty text gives 0.

Example: Length(telephone1) < 8 flags phone numbers that are too short.

Index Of

Section titled “Index Of”
Index Of(text, search)Returns Whole Number

Returns the position of the first occurrence of a text inside another text. Shown as Position Of in the outline.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to search in.
Search Text Yes The text to find.
  • Positions start at 0. The result is -1 when the text is not found.
  • The search is case-sensitive: “Contoso” does not find “contoso”.
  • When the text or the search is empty, the result is -1.

Example: Index Of(emailaddress1, "@") gives the position of the @ sign.

Last Index Of

Section titled “Last Index Of”
Last Index Of(text, search)Returns Whole Number

Returns the position of the last occurrence. Shown as Last Position Of in the outline. Same parameters and rules as Index Of.

Example: Last Index Of(fullname, " ") finds the space before the last name.

Match Pattern

Section titled “Match Pattern”
ValidateText(text, pattern)Returns Yes/No

Checks whether a text matches a regular expression. Use it in validations for formats such as postal codes, tax IDs or reference numbers.

Parameter Type Required Description
String Argument Text Yes The text to check. Empty text is checked as "".
Pattern Text Yes A regular expression.
  • Matching ignores case. To make the pattern case-sensitive, start it with (?-i).
  • An empty pattern always matches.
  • A typed pattern that is not valid is reported in the editor, before the logic runs.
  • A pattern that takes too long to evaluate fails the run. Keep patterns simple and anchored with ^ and $.

Example: ValidateText(emailaddress1, "^[^@\s]+@[^@\s]+\.[a-z]{2,}$") checks that an email address looks valid.

Cut and clean

Section titled “Cut and clean”

Substring

Section titled “Substring”
Substring(text, start, length)Returns Text

Returns part of a text.

Parameter Type Required Description
String Argument Text Yes The text to cut.
Index Argument Whole Number Yes Where to start. 0 is the first character.
Length (optional) Whole Number No How many characters to return. Without it, the rest of the text is returned.
  • Positions outside the text never fail: a start beyond the end gives empty text, a negative start counts as 0, and a length past the end is cut short.
  • Empty text gives empty text.

Examples

  • Substring(ticketnumber, 4) turns “CAS-01234” into “01234”.
  • Substring(emailaddress1, Index Of(emailaddress1, "@") + 1) gives the email domain, such as “contoso.com”.

Left / Right

Section titled “Left / Right”
Left(text, count)Returns Text
Right(text, count)Returns Text

Returns the first (Left) or last (Right) characters of a text.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text.
Number of characters Whole Number Yes How many characters to return.
  • A count of 0 or less gives empty text. A count longer than the text gives the whole text.

Examples

  • Right(accountnumber, 4) shows only the last four digits.
  • Left(StripHtml(description), 200) keeps a subject or summary within 200 characters.

Trim

Section titled “Trim”
Trim(text)Returns Text

Removes spaces at the start and end of a text.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to trim.

Example: Null Or Empty String(Trim(new_comment)) treats a comment of only spaces as empty.

To Upper Case / To Lower Case

Section titled “To Upper Case / To Lower Case”
Uppercase(text)Returns Text
Lowercase(text)Returns Text

Converts text to capitals or small letters, using language-neutral rules. Shown as Uppercase and Lowercase in the outline.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to convert.

Example: Uppercase(address1_country) gives “JORDAN”.

Replace

Section titled “Replace”
Replace(text, old, new)Returns Text

Replaces every occurrence of one text with another.

Parameter Type Required Description
String Argument Text Yes The text to change.
Old Argument Text Yes The text to find. Matching is case-sensitive.
New Argument Text Yes The replacement.

Example: Replace(description, "Contoso Ltd", "Contoso Group") updates a company name after a rebrand.

Remove HTML

Section titled “Remove HTML”
StripHtml(text)Returns Text

Turns rich text, such as an email body or a rich-text note, into readable plain text.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The HTML or rich text.
  • Line breaks are kept for line breaks, paragraphs, list items, table rows and headings.
  • Script and style content is removed, entities such as &amp; are decoded, and repeated spaces and blank lines are collapsed.

Example: Left(StripHtml(Email.description), 2000) stores the text of an incoming email in a case description.

Patterns

Section titled “Patterns”

The three pattern functions use regular expressions, like Match Pattern. They share these rules:

  • Matching ignores case by default. Start the pattern with (?-i) to make it case-sensitive.
  • A typed pattern that is not valid is reported in the editor before the logic runs.
  • A pattern that takes too long to evaluate fails the run.

Extract with Pattern

Section titled “Extract with Pattern”
RegexExtract(text, pattern, group)Returns Text

Returns the first part of a text that matches a pattern.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to search.
Pattern (regular expression) Text Yes What to find.
Group (optional) Whole Number No Which part of the match to return. 0 or empty returns the whole match; 1 returns the first group in parentheses.
  • No match, empty text or an empty pattern gives empty text.

Example: RegexExtract(description, "PO-(\d+)", 1) takes the purchase order number out of an email body: “Please ship PO-48812 today” gives “48812”.

Extract All with Pattern

Section titled “Extract All with Pattern”
RegexExtractAll(text, pattern, group)Returns List of Text

Returns every part of a text that matches a pattern. Same parameters as Extract with Pattern.

  • No match, empty text or an empty pattern gives an empty list.

Example: RegexExtractAll(description, "CAS-\d{5}-\w{6}") lists every case number mentioned in an email.

Replace with Pattern

Section titled “Replace with Pattern”
RegexReplace(text, pattern, replacement)Returns Text

Replaces every part of a text that matches a pattern.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to change.
Pattern (regular expression) Text Yes What to replace.
Replacement Text Yes The new text. Refer to groups with $1, $2, or ${name} for named groups.
  • An empty pattern returns the text unchanged. Empty text gives empty text.

Examples

  • RegexReplace(telephone1, "[^0-9+]", "") keeps only digits and the plus sign: “+962 (6) 555-0100” becomes “+96265550100”.
  • RegexReplace(fullname, "^(\w+) (\w+)$", "$2, $1") turns “Nancy Davolio” into “Davolio, Nancy”.

Split text into a list

Section titled “Split text into a list”

Split

Section titled “Split”
Split(text, separator)Returns List of Text

Splits a text into a list at each separator.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to split.
Separator Text Yes Where to split, for example ";".
Trim entries and remove empty ones Yes/No No Defaults to Yes.
  • With Trim entries and remove empty ones on, each entry is trimmed and empty entries are dropped: “a; b;;” gives a, b. Turn it off to keep entries exactly as written.
  • An empty separator gives the whole text as one item.
  • Empty text gives an empty list.

Example: Split(new_ccemails, ";") turns “anne@contoso.com; raj@contoso.com” into a list of two addresses you can loop over in a flow.

Format values as text

Section titled “Format values as text”

To String

Section titled “To String”
toString(value, format)Returns Text

Formats a date, number or ID as text. Shown as To Text in the outline.

Parameter Type Required Description
Value Date and Time, any number, Unique Identifier or Lookup Yes The value to format.
Format Picked from a list No How to format it. The list depends on the value’s type.

Formats you can pick:

For Formats
Date and Time Short (d), Long (D), Full Short (f), Full Long (F), General Short (g), General Long (G), Month Day (M), Short Time (t), Long Time (T), ISO Full DateTime (yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss), European DateTime Style (dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm), US DateTime Style (MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt), ISO Date (yyyy-MM-dd), European Date (dd/MM/yyyy), Long Format Date (MMM dd, yyyy)
Numbers Percent (P), Exponential (E2), Currency (C), Two Decimals (F2)
Unique Identifier Hyphens Separated, Non Separated, Braces, Parentheses, Hex
  • Dates are formatted as stored. A User Local date is in UTC, so convert it with Convert From Utc first when you want the user’s local time.
  • For a lookup with a format, the record’s ID is formatted.
  • An empty value gives empty text.
  • Formatting follows the server’s regional settings, not the user’s: named formats (Short, Long, Currency, Percent and so on), month names and the decimal separator can differ between environments. For text that other systems read, use explicit patterns such as yyyy-MM-dd or F2.

Examples

  • toString(estimatedclosedate, "yyyy-MM-dd") gives “2026-11-30”.
  • toString(closeprobability, "P") shows a probability as a percentage.

Encode and decode

Section titled “Encode and decode”

These functions prepare text for web addresses, HTML and integrations, for example when a logic flow calls an external service through a service connection.

Base64 Encode / Base64 Decode

Section titled “Base64 Encode / Base64 Decode”
Base64Encode(text)Returns Text
Base64Decode(text)Returns Text

Converts text to and from Base64, using UTF-8.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to encode or decode.
  • Base64 Decode also accepts the URL-safe alphabet (- and _) and missing = padding.
  • Text that is not valid Base64 decodes to empty text; the run does not fail.
  • Empty text gives empty text.

Example: Concatenate("Basic ", Base64Encode(Concatenate(ApiUser, ":", ApiKey))) builds a basic authorization header.

URL Encode / URL Decode

Section titled “URL Encode / URL Decode”
UrlEncode(text)Returns Text
UrlDecode(text)Returns Text

Escapes text for use in a web address, or reverses it.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to encode or decode.
  • URL Encode escapes text for a URL path or query value: a space becomes %20.
  • URL Decode reads both %20 and + as a space and leaves escapes that are not valid as written.

Example: Concatenate("https://maps.example.com/?q=", UrlEncode(address1_composite)) builds a map link for an account’s address.

HTML Encode / HTML Decode

Section titled “HTML Encode / HTML Decode”
HtmlEncode(text)Returns Text
HtmlDecode(text)Returns Text

Makes text safe to show inside HTML, or turns HTML entities back into characters.

Parameter Type Required Description
Text Text Yes The text to encode or decode.
  • HTML Encode turns special characters into entities, so < becomes &lt; and the text displays as written.
  • HTML Decode turns entities such as &amp; back into characters.

Example: Concatenate("<p>Dear ", HtmlEncode(Customer.name), ",</p>") in an email body keeps a name like “Smith & Sons” from breaking the HTML.

Section titled “Related”