Handle Arrays in Code Actions

When working with arrays in Code actions, you may encounter two common challenges:

1. Arrays passed as strings — data from external systems or previous steps arrives as a string instead of an actual array
2. Can't select individual items — you can only select the entire array, not specific fields within it

Both can be solved with a Code node.

Parsing Arrays from Strings

Arrays are often passed between workflow steps as strings or JSON rather than native arrays. This happens when:

• Receiving data from external APIs via HTTP Request
• Processing webhook payloads
• Passing data between workflow steps

Solution: Add this pattern at the start of your Code action:

export const main = async (params: {
  users: any;
}): Promise<object> => {
  const { users } = params;

  // Handle input that may come as a string or an array
  const usersFormatted = typeof users === "string" ? JSON.parse(users) : users;

  // Now you can safely work with usersFormatted as an array
  return {
    users: usersFormatted.map((user) => ({
      ...user,
      activityStatus: String(user.activityStatus).toUpperCase(),
    })),
  };
};

The key line typeof users === "string" ? JSON.parse(users) : users checks if the input is a string, parses it if needed, or uses it directly if it's already an array.

Extracting Individual Fields from Arrays

A webhook might return an array like answers: [...], but in subsequent workflow steps you can only select the entire array — not individual items within it.

Solution: Add a Code node to extract specific fields and return them as a structured object:

export const main = async (params: {
  answers: any;
}): Promise<object> => {
  const { answers } = params;

  // Handle input that may come as a string or an array
  const answersFormatted = typeof answers === "string"
    ? JSON.parse(answers)
    : answers;

  // Extract specific fields from the array
  const firstname = answersFormatted[0]?.text || "";
  const name = answersFormatted[1]?.text || "";

  return {
    answer: {
      firstname,
      name
    }
  };
};

The Code node returns a structured object instead of an array. In subsequent steps, you can now select individual fields like answer.firstname and answer.name from the variable picker.