Add A Record To A Table Variable In Copilot Studio

You can add a record to a table variable in Copilot Studio using a hidden node type named EditTable. The EditTable node can only be added through the YAML code editor. It also gives the ability to remove a record, clear the table, or take record from the start or end of the table.

Table of Contents
• Introduction: The Project Staffing Agent
• Create A Table Variable In The Start Conversation Topic
• Add A Record To A Table Variable In Copilot Studio
• Remove A From A Table Variable In Copilot Studio
• Clear A Table Variable In Copilot Studio

Introduction: The Project Staffing Agent

Planners at a consulting firm use an Agent to manage their project teams. A planner can ask the agent to add a team member to a project, remove a team member, or clear the entire project team.

Create A Table Variable In The Start Conversation Topic

Open Copilot Studio and create a new Project Staffing Agent.

Use the following description and general instructions:

Go to the Conversation Start topic.

In the Conversation Start topic we want to create a new table variable named Global.ProjectTeam. This variable will track who is currently on a project team.

Use this formula to initialize the variable with 3 team members. This table variable only stores the consultant names but it is possible to add additional fields like email, phone number, etc.

Table(
    {Name: "Matthew"},
    {Name: "Vivek"}, 
    {Name: "Angela"}
)

Also, edit the existing message node to display this text. Write a formula to display the initial project team as a bulleted list.

Hello, I'm the {Bot.Name}.


The current project team is:
<ul>
{Concat(Global.ProjectTeam, "<li>"&Name&"</li>")}
​
</ul>
<br />

What would you like to do next? Add a team member, remove a team member, or clear the entire team?


The current project team is:
<ul>
Concat(Global.ProjectTeam, "<li>"&Name&"</li>")
​
</ul>
<br />

What would you like to do next? Add a team member, remove a team member, or clear the entire team?

Add A Record To A Table Variable In Copilot Studio

To add a record to a table variable we will insert a hidden Edit Table node through the code editor. It does not appear as a selection in the Copilot Studio nodes menu.

Create a new topic named Add Team Member To A Project.

Setup the topic as shown in this screenshot.

The Add New Record To Table action must be added using the code editor.

Insert the EditTable action after the question node.

Copy and paste this YAML code into the code editor.

- kind: EditTable
  id: editTable_tRec0l
  displayName: Add New Record to Table
  changeType: Add
  itemsVariable: Global.ProjectTeam
  resultVariable: Global.ProjectTeam
  value: "={Name: Topic.PersonName}"

The hidden EditTable action will now show in the topic and with these properties.

Remove A From A Table Variable In Copilot Studio

If we want to remove a record from table variable we can also do it through the Copilot Studio code editor. Create a new topic named Remove Team Member From A Project.

Design the topic as show in this image:

Open the Copilot Studio code editor and copy & paste this code below the question node to create a new EditTable node.

- kind: EditTable
  id: editTable_XYZ123
  displayName: Remove Record From Table
  changeType: Remove
  itemsVariable: Global.ProjectTeam
  resultVariable: Global.ProjectTeam
  value: "={Name: Topic.PersonName}"

The EditTable node will show in the topic editor and its action property is set to remove a record from the table variable.

Clear A Table Variable In Copilot Studio

Clearing a table variable in Copilot Studio is also possible by writing YAML in the code editor. Though we could also do this by setting the table variable to Blank() it is still useful to know an alternate way.

Add a new topic to the Agent named Clear Project Team.

Build the topic as shown below:

Copy and paste this code into the YAML editor.

- kind: EditTable
  id: editTable_345Tla
  displayName: Clear Table
  changeType: Clear
  itemsVariable: Global.ProjectTeam
  resultVariable: Global.ProjectTeam

Then the Clear Table node will appear in the topic editor with these properties.

Questions?

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