Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Hi there,

I'm looking at creating a cascading dropdown menu on my existing powerapps form.

I have a sharepoint list called Lessons Learned with various different columns on - one being 'Service' which is the column I want to be the parent field. I want this to be the main list that entries are saved to.

I then want a 'sub category' dropdown that the user can select. For example if they choose the Transport service, I want the second dropdown to display various options i.e. Public Transport, Transport Operation, if they choose the Energy service then different options will show from the transport selection. This will need to be saved to the main list.

Many thanks in advance.

Categories:

General Questions

Hello CU17091441-0,

Thank you for your question. Creating cascading (or dependent) dropdowns in Power Apps is a common and powerful technique. The process involves using the Filter() and Distinct() functions to populate a "child" dropdown based on the selection in a "parent" dropdown.

Here’s a quick guide using a classic Country/State example with a data source named Locations.

1. Country Dropdown (Parent)

This dropdown shows a unique list of countries.
Control Name: dd_Country
Items Property: Distinct(Locations, Country)

2. State Dropdown (Child)

This dropdown shows states filtered by the selected country.
Control Name: dd_State
Items Property: Distinct(Filter(Locations, Country = dd_Country.Selected.Result), State)
This formula first filters your Locations list to match the selected country, then returns a unique list of corresponding states.

Best Practices

To improve the user experience, you should also:
Reset Child Dropdowns: When a parent value changes, reset the children. On the dd_Country dropdown, set its OnChange property to: Reset(dd_State).
Disable Child Dropdowns: Prevent users from selecting a child before a parent is chosen. On the dd_State dropdown, set its DisplayMode property to: If(IsBlank(dd_Country.Selected), DisplayMode.Disabled, DisplayMode.Edit).

This creates a clean, guided selection process for your users.

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix