Microsoft PowerApps: Beginner’s Guide to the Patch function

Introduction

In Microsoft PowerApps one of the key things you will need to learn is how to create and update records in a data source.

To achieve this, there is a function called “Patch”. In this beginner’s guide I will show you how to use it.

Lets consider the following scenario:

We have an app to log inventory items for an IT department. In the app we have:

• inventoryList = A connected data source which is a SharePoint list
• inventoryItems = A Gallery (left of screen) that displays any data from our data source
• nameInput = A text input field
• quantityInput = A text input field
• saveButton = A button for the user to click

Here is a screenshot for reference:

1. Adding a new item to the inventory

In the first instance we may want to add a new item to the inventory, to do this we can use Patch, and add a formula to the “OnSelect” property of our button.

When the user clicks the button we want to add a new item to the inventoryList using the input values for name and quantity.