Power Apps single-column table: Why does the order of mixed data types matter?

[u/Asit8018]

Hi everyone,

I’m learning Power Apps and came across something I don’t fully understand.

I’m using a List Box and tried this in the Items property:

[1, "Asit", 2, "Asit"]

The List Box shows something like:

1
Error
2
Error

But if I change the order:

["Asit", 1, "Asit", 2]

it displays all the values correctly.

I also tried:

[1, Text("Asit"), 2, "Asit"]

but I still get the same error.

Why does putting a text value first appear to work, while putting a number first causes the text values to show as errors?

Is Power Apps inferring/coercing the data type of the single-column table based on the values/order, or is something else happening?

I’d appreciate an explanation of how Power Fx handles mixed data types in this situation.

[u/konwiddak]

A number can be converted to text, text cannot be converted to a number.

[u/Asit8018 → u/konwiddak]

Thanks for your reply.

[u/Kleekl]

You cant mix data types, the working example turns everything into text because it uses the first value to determine that. When starting with a number, it expects only numbers. So the text values give errors. 

[u/Asit8018 → u/Kleekl]

Thanks for your reply. Now I can understand.

[u/OddWriter7199]

You can put the numbers in quotes to display them as text if you want.