Power Apps Dropdown – Modern Controls

Purpose

A Power Apps dropdown allows users to select one option from a list of predefined options by clicking or tapping on a downward arrow. Its purpose is to save space and present a limited set of choices.



Properties

AccessibleLabel
Screen readers will voice this text when a user selects the control
DefaultSelectedItems
Initial values displayed in the control before the user interacts with it
ContentLanguage
Describes the language used to the audience (e.g. “en-US”)
DisplayMode
Selects the mode: Edit, View or Disabled. In Edit mode the user can input values. In View mode the user can only see the values and in Disabled mode the control is greyed-out.

Options:
= DisplayMode.Disabled
= DisplayMode.Edit
= DisplayMode.View
Height
Distance from the top of the control to the bottom
Items
Table containing values displayed inside the dropdown list

Example:
[“Item 1”, “Item 2”, “Item 3”]
OnChange
Actions that will be executed when the Value property of the progress bar changes
OnSelect
Actions that will be executed when the button is pressed.
Required
Unknown purpose.
Selected
Dropdown list item record selected by the user
SelectedItems
Dropdown list item records selected by the user
Text
Text displayed on the button
Visible
Determines whether to show or hide the control
Width
Distance from the left side of the control to the right side
X
Distance from the left edge of the screen to the left side of the control
Y
Distance from the top edge of the screen to the top of the control




How To Setup The Dropdown Control

  1. Select the dropdown control in Power Apps studio. Choose the datasource from the Items menu.



2. Edit the fields. Add at least one field to the dropdown. The first field will show in the dropdown items list.



3. Click on the dropdown control to see the list of items.



4. Get the selected item’s Title field by using this code.

DropdownCanvas1.Selected.Title





Questions?

If you have any questions or feedback about Power Apps Dropdown – Modern Controls please leave a message in the comments section below. You can post using your email address and are not required to create an account to join the discussion.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

34 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mmollet
mmollet
1 year ago

Seems that this control has a limit of 25 items?? seems really low considering the old one had a limit of 500. Hoping this is just for the time being and on realease they will have at least 500 back.

ahmed
1 year ago

this dropdown can’t show more than 25 items, you can check this

angel eg
angel eg
1 year ago

Control doesn’t support searching either, so seems like much improvement is needed before it can be used in production apps.

Sim
Sim
1 year ago

Also can’t display more than 1 field! Geeze, kinda sucks.

Aktar
Aktar
4 months ago

Still can’t display more than 1 field ๐Ÿ˜’

Tony DC
2 months ago
Reply to  Aktar

I created a workaround, by adding a ‘helper’ column which concatenates the two fields I want to see. Unfortunately, I haven’t worked out how to only populate it with one field though ๐Ÿ™

Stacey
Stacey
1 year ago

Is it possible to use these modern dropdown controls for cascading? I’ve not had any luck getting this to work.

Marie
Marie
1 year ago
Reply to  Stacey

Yes you can do cascading. Here is code for a dropdown that changes the 2nd one.

First Dropdown is called drpFeatureType and 2nd is called drpFeatureSubType.

For the first one, add this code:
Sort(ForAll(Distinct(YOURDATABASE, Title), {Result: ThisRecord.Value}), Result, SortOrder.Ascending)

and make sure you select the Title in the Edit field of the dropdown.

Then add

Sort(Filter(DFERequestTypes,Title=drpFeatureType.Selected.Result), SubType, SortOrder.Ascending)

to the 2nd dropdown and make sure to add SubType to the Edit Fields area.

Christian Harrington
Christian Harrington
1 year ago

Hi Matthew,
thanks for the post, very intersting.

I am playing with these new visuals, especially this dropdown, I like the look ๐Ÿ™‚
It seems I cannot assign a value from a gallery item like ThisItem.SomeField into the DefaultSelectedItems.

This looks surprising to me. Does it mean we can’t bind default values from a datasource? Wih the old dropdown we can do this.
With new Input Text we can. With new Checkbox we can’t…
Or am I missing something?

Thanks!

Preben
Preben
1 year ago

My list is blank (Choices([@’My list’].Column)) – but controlling selection with a textbox and code DropdownCanvas1.Selected.Title I can see that the values are there. Is it font color = to background color?? Drives me crazy.

ZDimitri
ZDimitri
1 year ago

I have problems with defining the DefaultSelectedItems property.
Items – [“08″,”09″,”10″,”11″,”12″,”13″,”14″,”15″,”16″,”17″,”18”]
How would I define a default value in this simple scenario? Thanks in advance!

Edit: The only solution I found is to define Items as Table({},{},{} … and then set the specific table record as default. It’s a pain to configure.

Last edited 1 year ago by ZDimitri
Michael
Michael
3 months ago
Reply to  ZDimitri

[ “Default Value” ]

Also works in galleries, [ ThisItem.your_value ]

Dean
Dean
1 year ago

Currently unable to specify a table of SearchFields like in the old combobox. Restricted to searching on a single field even though multiple can added.

Simon Smith
Simon Smith
1 year ago

Am I being dense, or is there no way to set the ‘Items’ property to use a Distinct function? I’ve attempted to port my “old” dropdowns to the new, modern ones, and every time I nest my field in a Distinct() function, the list comes back as blank.

Aaron Wheelock
Aaron Wheelock
11 months ago

Hello,
Any success with setting DefaultSelectedItems property? It’s not working consistently in my app, I have property set to the below. This is within a gallery.

Filter(
    colScores1,
    Response = ThisItem.Response
)

Thank you,

Ezra Orina
Ezra Orina
7 months ago
Reply to  Aaron Wheelock

{Value: “YourValueHere”}

Michael
Michael
3 months ago
Reply to  Aaron Wheelock

[ โ€œDefault Valueโ€ ]
Also works in galleries, [ ThisItem.your_value ]

Rob
Rob
11 months ago

I cannot seem to find a way to clear the selection of a modern dropdown. The legacy one had a setting to allow that. How do we clear the selection on the modern control?

richard c
9 months ago
Reply to  Rob

I agree. It should have the “allow empty selection” like in the old control. Seems a fundamental need. Surprised it came out of “preview” without it. @Matthew – have you heard whether they get on this?

Mohammed
Mohammed
9 months ago

Hi Matthew,
there isn’t a Reset property for this control. I have about 10-15 controls in my app that I’d like to reset using boolean variable on the Reset property. I could do it with classic controls but how do I do that with modern controls?

Hannelize
Hannelize
4 months ago

Hi there could you please elaborate on this, how can I the reset the value/ control to current value in the database (Dataverse)?

Luke
Luke
9 months ago

hi Matt
have you come across the problem like me and others with the modern drop down not showing the data?

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/new-modern-control-dropdown-doesn-t-show-the-data/m-p/2400362#M599057

Last edited 9 months ago by Luke
Stacey
Stacey
9 months ago
Reply to  Luke

Hello,

I was experiencing the same issue with the data not showing. However, if I don’t select a data source when first inserting the dropdown, the data show up.

Ezra Orina
Ezra Orina
7 months ago

I like the look. However, it does not update immediately I select a new value.

When a new value is selected, the dropdown choices will disappear which is good. However, it will go back to showing the old value for about two seconds before the one you selected shows up.

I am forced to do a loading icon, so users expect a delay after selecting a new value. It is unnecessary though since the choices are mere integers, not large records.

Philip
Philip
3 months ago

I know this is specific to dropdowns but I am working with combo box. It works except that on searching it will not display your selected value. You have to tab out of the box for it to display. Same thing on textboxes. Any ideas if this is going to be fixed or workarounds?

adam carter
6 days ago

Is the distinct function the same on modern controls? When i use the old distinct formula the dropdown is not returning any records.

shahrul
1 day ago
Reply to  adam carter

Same. I am having same issue. Looked around but haven’t found any solutions yet so far.

shahrul
1 day ago
Reply to  adam carter

I just found out when using combo box with same distinct function, now I can see the item values. Please try this method.