Saving name from a text field to a people/group column, how?

[Americo Perez]

Hi,

I got a request, a strange one, but a request at the end of the day. 

There is a list that contain one column of type people/group, and there is an add-in that manage this list (CRUD) and it contains a form to do that. In the form there is a input field type text where the user will write the name that will be send to the column of type people/group. I asked if is it not enough to use a column type single text since the user that will fill the form knows already the username that wants to save but they say to me that in the future another task will be applied to this column and therefore needs to be of type people/group.

So my question is how can I save the username to the people/group column?

Best regards

Americo

[#2]

I've been able to do something similar in the past by using a SP designer workflow. I was capturing the users email via plain text and then copying that into a person field via an Update Item step.

Not certain if the same logic will work with a plain a First and Last name, I would think it would. One thing I would look out for if you go that route is if it's a large company with two "John Brown"s the workflow may have trouble resolving the name and error out. 

If you have Flow, you may also want to look into the Resolve Person action. It seems like it would work the same way. 

https://www.chakkaradeep.com/2018/03/14/validate-sharepoint-person-field-in-microsoft-flow/

[#3]

I will give a chance to the Flow, it seems like it should work.

I'll be back with the results.

Thanks!