How to Use the Select Action in Power Automate to Reshape and Transform Data

Introduction

When working with Power Automate, actions such as Get items, Get rows, or API calls often return more data than you actually need. Processing all those properties can make a flow harder to understand and maintain.

The Select action, available under Data Operations, helps solve this problem by allowing you to reshape an array of objects. You can select the properties you need, rename them, and create a clean output structure for the next step in your flow.

Simple concept:
Filter Array decides which records you want. Select decides what information you want from those records.

What is the Select Action?

The Select action transforms an array into a new array with the structure you define.

For example, a SharePoint Get items action may return:

ID
Name
Email
Department
Phone
Location
Created
Modified
Author
Editor

But suppose your next action only requires:

EmployeeName
EmailAddress
Department

Instead of passing all the original properties forward, you can use Select to create a smaller and cleaner structure.

Before Select

[
    {
        Name: "DemoUser1",
        Email: "[email protected]",
        Department: "IT",
        Phone: "12345",
        Location: "India"
    }
]

After Select

[
    {
        EmployeeName: "DemoUser1",
        EmailAddress: "[email protected]",
        Department: "IT"
    }
]

Real-World Example: SharePoint Employee List

Assume you have a SharePoint list called Employees.

The list contains:

ID	Name	Email	Department	Phone	Location
1	DemoUser1	[email protected]	IT	12345	India
2	DemoUser2	[email protected]	HR	67890	USA
3	DemoUser3	[email protected]	Finance	54321	UK

You want to send employee information through an email, but you only need:

• Employee Name

• Email Address

• Department
  

The flow can be designed as:

Get Items
   ↓
Select
   ↓
Create HTML Table
   ↓
Send Email

Step 1: Get Items

Add the SharePoint Get items action.

Configure:

Site Address

Your SharePoint Site

List Name

Employees

The important output from Get items is the value array.

Example:

[
    {
        "Name": "DemoUser1",
        "Email": "[email protected]",
        "Department": "IT",
        "Phone": "12345"
    },
    {
        "Name": "DemoUser2",
        "Email": "[email protected]",
        "Department": "HR",
        "Phone": "67890"
    }
]

Step 2: Add Select

Click:

+ New step → Data Operation → Select

The Select action contains two important areas:

From

For SharePoint Get items, select:

value

This tells Power Automate which array should be transformed.

Map

Now define the properties that you want in the output.

Key	Value
EmployeeName	Name
EmailAddress	Email
Department	Department

Conceptually:

EmployeeName  → Name
EmailAddress  → Email
Department    → Department

Step 3: Output

After Select executes, the output becomes:

[
  {
    "EmployeeName": "DemoUser1",
    "EmailAddress": "[email protected]",
    "Department": "IT"
  },
  {
    "EmployeeName": "DemoUser2",
    "EmailAddress": "[email protected]",
    "Department": "HR"
  },
  {
    "EmployeeName": "DemoUser3",
    "EmailAddress": "[email protected]",
    "Department": "Finance"
  }
]

Notice that the number of records remains the same, but the structure of each record has changed.

Select Does Not Filter Records

This is one of the most important things to understand.

Suppose Get items returns:

10 records

After Select:

10 records

Select changes the properties of each record.

If you want to reduce:

10 records → 5 records

you should use Filter array.

Select vs Filter Array

Feature	Filter Array	Select
Removes records	Yes	No
Changes properties	No	Yes
Renames properties	No	Yes
Reduces number of records	Yes	No
Creates a new structure	Limited	Yes
Main purpose	Filter data	Reshape data

Example

If you want only IT employees:

Get Items
    ↓
Filter Array
    ↓
Select

Filter Array:

Department = IT

Then Select:

EmployeeName → Name
EmailAddress → Email
Department → Department

The result contains only IT employees with the required properties.

Using Select in an Invoice Approval Flow

Select is also useful in an Invoice Approval process.

For example, suppose a SharePoint query returns many invoice fields:

Invoice Number
Vendor
Invoice Amount
Invoice Date
Approval Status
Created By
Modified By
Created
Modified
Department
Currency
...

But you want to send an approval summary containing only:

InvoiceNumber
VendorName
Amount
Status

Your flow can be:

Get Invoice Items
       ↓
Filter Array
       ↓
Select
       ↓
Create HTML Table
       ↓
Send Approval Email

The Select mapping could be:

Output Property	Source
InvoiceNumber	Invoice Number
VendorName	Vendor
Amount	Invoice Amount
Status	Approval Status

This produces a clean dataset for the email or report.

Why Use Select?

1. Create a clean data structure

Instead of passing unnecessary fields through the flow, you can create a structure containing only the required information.

2. Rename properties

For example:

Name → EmployeeName
Email → EmailAddress

This makes the output easier to understand.

3. Remove unnecessary fields

If the source contains 20 properties but you need only 4, Select can produce an output containing those 4 properties.

4. Make downstream actions easier

A clean Select output can be used by actions such as:

• Create HTML Table

• Create CSV Table

• Send an Email

• HTTP

• Parse JSON

• Apply to each

• Compose
  

Select with Filter Array

A common and useful pattern is:

Get Items
    ↓
Filter Array
    ↓
Select
    ↓
Create HTML Table
    ↓
Send Email

Filter Array

Answers:

Which records do I want?

Select

Answers:

What information do I want from those records?

For example:

Get Items
   ↓
Keep only Approved invoices
   ↓
Select Invoice Number, Vendor and Amount
   ↓
Create HTML Table
   ↓
Send Email

This makes the overall flow easier to maintain.

Common Mistakes

1. Using the wrong input

For SharePoint Get items, Select normally needs the value array.

Do not accidentally provide the complete Get items response object.

2. Using Select instead of Filter Array

If your requirement is:

"I only want records where Status = Approved."

Use Filter array.

Select alone will not remove the other records.

3. Using unclear output names

Avoid names such as:

Field1
Field2
Data1
Data2

Prefer meaningful names:

InvoiceNumber
VendorName
InvoiceAmount
ApprovalStatus

4. Passing unnecessary fields

If the next action only requires three properties, there is usually no reason to carry many unrelated properties through the rest of the flow.

Complete Example

A practical Power Automate design could look like this:

When an item is created
        ↓
Get Items
        ↓
Filter Array
   Status = Active
        ↓
Select
   EmployeeName → Name
   EmailAddress → Email
   Department → Department
        ↓
Create HTML Table
        ↓
Send Email

Input

DemoUser1  | [email protected]    | IT
DemoUser2  | [email protected]    | HR
DemoUser3  | [email protected]    | Finance

Select Output

EmployeeName | EmailAddress       | Department
------------------------------------------------
DemoUser1  | [email protected]  | IT
DemoUser2  | [email protected]  | HR
DemoUser3  | [email protected]  | Finance

Conclusion

The Select action is a simple but powerful Data Operation in Power Automate for transforming arrays into a clean, meaningful structure.

Remember the easiest way to distinguish the two actions:

Filter Array = Which records should I keep?

Select = Which properties should I keep and how should they be named?

Using Filter Array + Select together can make Power Automate flows cleaner, easier to maintain, and easier to use in later actions.

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