Look Up Records action
Summarize
Summary of Look Up Records action
The Look Up Records action in ServiceNow enables users to retrieve multiple records from any table based on specified conditions. This action is available in the Workflow Studio for users with the flowdesigner or admin role, allowing them to configure flows effectively.
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Key Features
- Inputs:
- Table: Specify the table name containing the records for lookup.
- Conditions: Define search criteria using field names and values, with support for inline scripting using GlideRecord and GlideQueryCondition.
- Order by: Choose a field to sort results.
- Sort Type: Select ascending or descending order for sorting.
- Max Results: Limit the number of returned records to improve performance.
- Outputs:
- Records: List of record Sys IDs matching the lookup criteria.
- Table: The name of the table from which records were retrieved.
- Count: The total number of records returned by the action.
- General Guidelines:
- Utilize For Each flow logic to process records individually.
- Set Max Results to 1000 or fewer to enhance flow performance.
- Use specific conditions to narrow down record retrieval for better efficiency.
Key Outcomes
By utilizing the Look Up Records action, ServiceNow customers can efficiently search for and process relevant records within their workflows. For instance, in scenarios like emergency change requests, users can quickly find configuration items assigned to requesters, streamlining operations and enhancing response times.
Look up multiple records on any table using defined conditions.
Roles and availability
Available as a Workflow Studio ServiceNow core action. Users with the flow_designer or admin role can add an action to a flow and define configuration details.
Inputs
Provide a value for each input that your flow needs. To add dynamic values, you can also drag pills from the Data panel or select them from the pill picker.
- Table
- Data type: Table Name
Table name containing the records you want to look up.
- Conditions
- Data type: Conditions
Field names and field values that you want to use to search for records. To use an inline script to specify conditions, consider using the GlideRecord and GlideQueryCondition classes to build your query. See GlideRecord - Global and GlideQueryCondition - Global.
- Order by
- Data type: Field Name
Field you want to use to sort results.
- Sort Type
- Data type: Choice
Option to sort alphabetically in ascending or descending order.
- Max Results
- Data type: Integer
The maximum number of record results the action can return.
Outputs
These outputs appear in the Data panel. You can use them as inputs elsewhere in your flow.
- Records
- Data type: Records
List of record Sys IDs found based on the lookup criteria that you provided. For more information, see Records.[Table] data type.
- Table
- Data type: Table Name
Table that contains the list of records.
- Count
- Data type: Integer
Number of records that the action returned.
General guidelines
Use these general guidelines when working with the Look Up Records action.
- Process records with For Each flow logic
- Use For Each flow logic to iterate through a list of records. For more information about using For Each flow logic, see For Each flow logic.
- Set Max Results to improve performance
- Set the Max Results input to 1000 records or lower to improve the performance of your flow. The more records that the system has to look up, the more system resources it takes to identify and process them.
- Use conditions to filter records
- Use conditions to limit the number of records the action returns. The more specific conditions that you can provide, the better performance your flow has.
Look up configuration items assigned to a change request user
In this example, the flow starts when an emergency change request is opened in the Network category. The Look Up Records action uses the Configuration Item [cmdb_ci] table as the Table input. The Conditions input looks for configuration items assigned to the requester of the change request. The Order by input uses the Name field to perform an ascending alphabetical type sort.
In the execution details, the Count output shows three configuration items that are assigned to the requester of the change request. The Records output shows the configuration items by name in the execution details page, but the data pill contains a series of Sys ID values. The Table output is the Configuration Item [cmdb_ci] table.