How to grab value of Lookup Select Box in Flow Designer

[Michael H1]

Apologies if this is in the incorrect location.

I have followed the following thread on the best way to directly reference certain choice fields on tables so that you do not need to go through the hassle of recreating choice options:

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-articles/dependent-select-box-choice-variables-on-rec...

Scenario:
We have a Catalog Item which has a Catalog Item Lookup Select Box that references "Substate" (substatus) on the Hardware (alm_hardware) table. I want to narrow the list of available Substates based on the dependent value. The dependent field being "State" (install_status). I accomplish that with these settings on that Catalog Item Variable:

In Flow Designer, I would then like to automatically set the Substate (substatus) of a Hardware record to the selected "Substatus" from this Lookup Select Box variable. I am unable to do so, however. After using the "Get Catalog Variables" action to grab the variable, if I drag that variable pill into the Substate value area, it only provides me a list of options to select from. I do not want this because it defeats the purpose of efficiently referencing the previous Substatus values I wanted to grab.

Does anyone know a way around this? Is the previously linked thread not the direction I should be taking? For more information, I do NOT have State as a Catalog Item Variable on the Catalog Item, the reason being anyone utilizing that Catalog Item is aware the intention of the Catalog Item is to change the Substate of the referenced Hardware record.

I would like the be able to show the list of Substates based on that specific State value then update the hardware record's Substate according the the selected value but Flow Designer appears to be limited based on the linked method. I am assuming because I'm not directly referencing Substate off of the Hardware table but instead using the sys_lookup table and narrowing the results there the actual Substate value is not able to be utilized to update the Hardware record's Substate.

[Sainath N]

@Michael H1 : Are you not able to expand the data pill and select the sub status variable?

[Michael H1]

Unfortunately, no. However, I did respond to Timi below in which I can see the value of that pill. But dragging and dropping it into the "Substatus" field does not populate it when the Flow runs.

[Edxavier Robert · Accepted solution]

Hi, 

After the step Get Catalog Variables form, can you create a new Lookup Records action and query the values that are you looking for? You will query the sys_choice table and use your reference qualifier to narrow down to what you need. 

[Michael H1]

EDITED
This was a good idea and this did work for me.

I can perform the lookup and I use the blocking_reason variable (which appears to contain the value of the "Label" field) to look up the choice item.

From there, I can drag "Choice Record -> Value" to populate the Substate/Substatus. Thank you, this was a quick solution.

I am still not sure why I can't directly use what is in the variable. Perhaps it is because it is the value of the "Label" field and not the actual "value"? Regardless, a couple quick steps to this flow was an easy addition and now that I know how to do this we will be using this method more consistently in our Flows to optimize building of our Catalog Items. Thank you.