# Updating TFS workItem has an error

**URL:** <https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/updating-tfs-workitem-has-an-error/3043>\
**Category:** Bugs\
**Created:** [October 31, 2008, 6:08am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/updating-tfs-workitem-has-an-error/3043 "2008-10-31T06:08:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/deleted_user/32/937_2.png) [@deleted\_user](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/deleted_user)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 6:08am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/updating-tfs-workitem-has-an-error/3043/1 "2008-10-31T06:08:46Z")

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We have a step which in final builder where we

1) Query for TFS work items and store them in a variable %TFSWorkItems%  
{System.Id} - {System.Title}

2) Send an EMail before updating all the work items using the variable %TFSWorkItems% which has the list of workitems.

We have encountered an error when we have % in the title field of TFS work items. Is there a work around for this?

Also can you redirect me to some link or document&nbsp;where i can find some syntax examples how i can format my mail i.e may be a line break or new line for each issue.

thanks in advance

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**Author:** ![paulsamways](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e8c25b/32.png) [@paulsamways](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/paulsamways)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2008, 11:19am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/updating-tfs-workitem-has-an-error/3043/2 "2008-11-02T11:19:01Z")

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Hi Jody,   
  
 \> We have encountered an error when we have % in the title field of TFS work items. Is there a work around for this?   
  
 You’ll need to disable recursive variable expansion for the %TFSWorkItems% variable, you can do this by specifying the variable as %!TFSWorkItems% in the email action. See [https://www.finalbuilder.com/finalbuilder/Help/HTML/escaping\_variable\_contents.htm](https://www.finalbuilder.com/finalbuilder/Help/HTML/escaping_variable_contents.htm) for more information.   
  
 With the formatting, you should be able to use a combination of a ‘List Iterator’ and ‘Append to Variable’ actions to iterate through the list of issues and append them as a formatted list. If you get stuck, send in an example list of work items and a description of how you’d like them formatted and we should be able to work something out.   
  
 Regards,   
 Paul.