Define a variable with multiple properties

Power Automate Desktop provides many actions for working with variables.

However, while there are actions for ordinary strings, numbers, dates, lists, and so on, there’s no action for defining an object with multiple properties.

There’s no ready-made action for this, but with a little ingenuity, you can define a variable with multiple properties in a single action.

This article explains the steps.

Note

Defining variables is explained here.

The “Set variable” action and data types are explained here.

How to define a variable with multiple properties

This article uses the “Set variable” action.

The action has the following parameters.

Parameter	Value
Variable	The name of the variable to create
Value	The value to store in the variable

In addition to strings and numbers, you can write code directly in this “Value” field.

By taking advantage of this and passing an expression that represents an object directly to “Value”, you can define a variable with multiple properties (a custom object).

Implement by copying and pasting

As a sample, this article uses a flow that defines a variable whose initial value has properties holding two different data types.

Copy the following code and paste it into the Power Automate Desktop flow designer to add the action.

SET InitializedObject TO { 'prop': 'value', 'array': ['itemA', 'itemB'] }

Implement in Power Automate Desktop

1. In “Search actions”, type “Set variable”.

2. Set the parameters as follows.

   Parameter	Value
   Variable	%InitializedObject%
   Value	%{ ‘prop’: ‘value’, ‘array’: [‘itemA’, ‘itemB’] }%

3. When you run the flow, a variable with multiple properties (a custom object) is defined.

Tip

You can use the same steps to create a list that has multiple items as its initial value.