pac power-fx

(Preview) Commands for working with Power Fx.

Use these commands to interact with data in Dataverse using a command line or script. Reduce the time and complexity of your Dataverse operations by using Power Fx.

You can use the formulas listed in the Formula reference - Power Platform CLI.

Commands

pac power-fx repl

(Preview) Launch interactive Power Fx Read-Eval-Print Loop

Optional Parameters for power-fx repl

--environment -env

Specifies the target Dataverse. The value may be a Guid or absolute https URL. When not specified, the active organization selected for the current auth profile will be used.

Remarks

This command provides a shell to use formulas listed in Formula reference - Power Platform CLI.

Start the Power Fx repl by running the following command:

pac power-fx repl

After that, you can run Power Fx commands.

Examples

The following examples show the use of the pac power-fx repl command.

• Add rows
• Help
• Exit

Add rows

Collect(Contacts, { firstname: "Patti", lastname: "Fernandez" })

The Power Fx repl responds with the following:

{contactid:GUID("118d7b47-8f80-ee11-8179-0022482a40c7"), fullname:"Patti Fernandez", ...}

Help

Run the following command to get help about all the commands that are available in Power Fx repl:

Help()

The Power Fx repl responds with the following output:

 Abs Acos Acot AddColumns And
 Asin AsType Atan Atan2 Average
 Blank Boolean Char Clear ClearCollect
 Coalesce Collect ColorFade ColorValue Concat
 Concatenate Cos Cot Count CountA
 CountIf CountRows Date DateAdd DateDiff
 DateTime DateTimeValue DateValue Day Dec2Hex
 Decimal Degrees Distinct DropColumns EDate
 EncodeUrl EndsWith EOMonth Error Exp
 Filter Find First FirstN Float
 ForAll GUID Help Hex2Dec Hour
 If IfError Index Int IsBlank
 IsBlankOrError IsEmpty IsError IsMatch IsNumeric
 IsToday Language Last LastN Left
 Len Ln Log LookUp Lower
 Match MatchAll Max Mid Min
 Minute Mod Month Not Notify
 Now OptionSetInfo Or ParseJSON Patch
 Pi PlainText Power Proper Radians
 Rand RandBetween Refresh Remove Replace
 RGBA Right Round RoundDown RoundUp
 Second Sequence Set Shuffle Sin
 Sort Split Sqrt StartsWith StdevP
 Substitute Sum Switch Table Tan
 Text Time TimeValue TimeZoneOffset Today
 Trim TrimEnds Trunc Upper Value
 VarP Weekday With Year
>>

Exit

Use Exit() to exit the repl command.

pac power-fx run

(Preview) Run a file of Power Fx instructions

Examples

The following examples show the use of the pac power-fx run command.

• Create Dataverse records
• Query a Dataverse table
• Use PowerFx functions

Create Dataverse records

1. Add the following text to test-pfx.txt and save the file.

   Collect(Contacts, { firstname: "Megan", lastname: "Bowen" })
   Collect(Contacts, { firstname: "Garth", lastname: "Forth" })
   Collect(Contacts, { firstname: "Adele", lastname: "Vance" })
   Collect(Contacts, { firstname: "Patti", lastname: "Fernandez" })
   

2. Run this command:

   PS C:\test> pac power-fx run --file test-pfx.txt
   

   You can expect output like the following:

   {contactid:GUID("80eb0c02-9180-ee11-8179-0022482a40c7"), fullname:"Megan Bowen", ...}
   {contactid:GUID("81eb0c02-9180-ee11-8179-0022482a40c7"), fullname:"Garth Forth", ...}
   {contactid:GUID("82eb0c02-9180-ee11-8179-0022482a40c7"), fullname:"Adele Vance", ...}
   {contactid:GUID("83eb0c02-9180-ee11-8179-0022482a40c7"), fullname:"Patti Fernandez", ...}
   

Query a Dataverse table

1. Add this text to test-pfx.txt and save the file.

   FirstN(Contacts, 5)
   

   This command retrieves the first five contacts from Dataverse.

2. Run this command:

   PS C:\test> pac power-fx run --file test-pfx.txt
   

   You can expect output like the following:

   Connected to... Your Organization
   Connected as you@yourorg.onmicrosoft.com
   
   contactid fullname ...
   ============================================== ================== =====
   GUID("eeb27495-d127-ed11-9db1-00224804f8e2") Yvonne McKay (sample)
   GUID("cba0ed9e-d127-ed11-9db1-00224804f8e2") Susanna Stubberod (sample)
   GUID("cea0ed9e-d127-ed11-9db1-00224804f8e2") Nancy Anderson (sample)
   GUID("6cc7483c-7a77-ee11-8179-00224809f375") Maria Campbell (sample)
   GUID("49b0be2e-d01c-ed11-b83e-000d3a572421") Sidney Higa (sample)
   PS C:\test>
   

Use PowerFx functions

1. Add the following text to test-pfx.txt and save the file.

   Set(x, 1)
   Result = If( Mid( "asdf",x,1 ) = "a", "X", "Y" )
   

   This example uses the Mid, If, and Set Power Fx functions.

2. Run the following command:

   PS C:\test> pac power-fx run --file test-pfx.txt
   

   You can expect output like the following:

   PS C:\test> pac power-fx run --file test-pfx.txt
   x: 1
   true
   Result: "X"
   PS C:\test>
   

3. Add the --echo parameter and you can expect this output:

   PS C:\test> pac power-fx run --file test-pfx.txt --echo
   Set(x, 1)
   
   x: 1
   true
   Result = If( Mid( "asdf",x,1 ) = "a", "X", "Y" )
   
   Result: "X"
   PS C:\test>
   

Required Parameters for power-fx run

--file -f

Path of file to execute

Optional Parameters for power-fx run

--echo -e

True if input commands should echo back to output

This parameter requires no value. It's a switch.

--environment -env

Specifies the target Dataverse. The value may be a Guid or absolute https URL. When not specified, the active organization selected for the current auth profile will be used.

Troubleshooting

The following are steps to troubleshoot errors you might encounter when using pac power-fx commands.

Error when no Dataverse authentication profile exists

You can get an error like this when you don't have a universal authentication profile associated with a Dataverse environment.

PS C:\test> pac power-fx run --file test-pfx.txt
Error 8-16: Name isn't valid. 'Contacts' isn't recognized.
Error 18-59: The specified column 'firstname' does not exist.
Error 0-60: The function 'Collect' has some invalid arguments.
Error 8-16: Name isn't valid. 'Contacts' isn't recognized.
Error 18-59: The specified column 'firstname' does not exist.
Error 0-60: The function 'Collect' has some invalid arguments.
Error 8-16: Name isn't valid. 'Contacts' isn't recognized.
Error 18-59: The specified column 'firstname' does not exist.
Error 0-60: The function 'Collect' has some invalid arguments.
Error 8-16: Name isn't valid. 'Contacts' isn't recognized.
Error 18-63: The specified column 'firstname' does not exist.
Error 0-64: The function 'Collect' has some invalid arguments.

To resolve errors like these, create a universal authentication profile associated with a Dataverse environment.

1. Run the command pac auth list.

   You might see a result like the following that includes a UNIVERSAL authentication profile with no Url indicating it's associated with a Dataverse environment.

   Index Active Kind Name Friendly Name Url User Cloud Type
   [1] * UNIVERSAL you@yourcompany.com Public OperatingSystem
   

   This isn't sufficient because no Dataverse environment is specified.

2. Use pac auth create to create a UNIVERSAL authentication profile connected to a Dataverse environment.

   Note

   Use the --environment parameter using the environmentid value. Find your environment ID.

   Don't use the --url parameter because this will create a DATAVERSE profile rather than a UNIVERSAL profile.

   For example:

   PS C:\test> pac auth create --environment f2cef599-b112-4803-bb5d-090077017685 --name ConnectionName
   'you@yourcompany.onmicrosoft.com' authenticated successfully.
   Validating connection...
   Default organization: YourOrganization
   Connected to... YourOrganization
   Connected as you@yourcompany.onmicrosoft.com
   Authentication profile created
    * UNIVERSAL ConnectionName https://yourcompany.crm.dynamics.com/ : you@yourcompany.onmicrosoft.com Public
   
   PS C:\test>
   

3. Run pac auth list again. You should see a result with UNIVERSAL connection profile with a URL for your Dataverse environment.

   PS C:\test> pac auth list
   Index Active Kind Name Friendly Name Url User Cloud Type
   [1] * UNIVERSAL you@yourcompany.com Public OperatingSystem
   [2] * UNIVERSAL ConnectionName YourOrganization https://yourcompany.crm.dynamics.com/ you@yourcompany.com Public User
   
   PS C:\test>
   

4. Select the UNIVERSAL environment to make it the default profile using the pac auth select command.

   PS C:\test> pac auth select --index 2
   New default profile:
    * UNIVERSAL ConnectionName https://yourcompany.crm.dynamics.com/ : you@yourcompany.com Public
   
   PS C:\test>
   

See also

Microsoft Power Platform CLI Command Groups
Microsoft Power Platform CLI overview