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Dataverse - How to set yes no values with checkbox- Walkthrough

This post walks through how to set a Dataverse yes/no field with a checkbox rather than a dropdown.

A frustrating problem that app builders encounter is that when building forms against Dataverse yes/no columns, using a checkbox to set the value isn't straightforward.

This post walks through an example of how to set Dataverse yes/no fields with a checkbox.

Setting up an example app and form

For this example, let's take a table called 'Project' with a yes/no field named 'IsUrgent'.

From the Apps section of the Power Apps portal, we'll select the 'Start with data' option to create an app based on the Project table.

The generated app uses a combo box in the form to display the IsUrgent field; there is no way to select a checkbox.


Here are the steps to convert the combobox to checkbox.

Step 1 - Replace the combobox with a checkbox

From the designer, unlock the card and delete the combobox control.

Insert a checkbox control called chkIsUrgent

There will be 2 errors in the form related to the missing combobox control. For the Y property of the Error Message label (shown below), we can replace the reference to DataCardValue4 (the deleted combobox control) with chkIsUrgent. 

chkIsUrgent.Y + chkIsUrgent.HeightCode



Step 2 - Configure the Update property of the card

The next thing to correct is the Update property of the Card as shown below. This property sets the data value of the field when a save operation occurs. 

If(chkIsUrgent.Value = true,
   'IsUrgent (Projects)'.Yes,
   'IsUrgent (Projects)'.No
)




The code above uses an If statement to check the value of a checkbox. If the checkbox is checked, we set the update value to 'IsUrgent (Projects)'.Yes. This is the syntax that's used to represent the Yes value for the field.
 
If you were re-creating this example for a different table, you would need to use this syntax to represent yes and no values

  • 'YesNoFieldName (TableName)'.Yes
  • 'YesNoFieldName (TableName)'.No

Step 3 - Configure the Default property of the checkbox

The final step is to set the Default property of the checkbox. This is the setting that controls the value that's displayed when loading an existing record. 

If (ThisItem.IsUrgent = 'IsUrgent (Projects)'.Yes, true, false)




At this point, we can run our app and use the checkbox to set the yes/no field.

Conclusion

Setting a Dataverse yes/no field with a checkbox isn't straightforward. This post walked though an example of how to convert a combobox on a form to a checkbox.

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