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CNIL
Frequent Visitor

Applying the excel date/time display format at the end of the flow

Hi All,

I have a flow using CONVERT TIME ZONE to produce a date and time, and convert it to format dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt.

CTZ.PNG

This output is then applied later in the to a cell in Excel Online via the Update Row task.

The dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt format matches the way the data is held in the cell in Excel and the process is running correctly to the point of updating the correct cell with the correct values in Excel.

 

 

Update Row.png

The issue I'm having is when the cell is updated it isn't applying the format in Excel, unless someone manually goes into that cell and presses Enter. For example the below cells have the following data:

 

25/02/2020 11:39:45 AM

26/02/2020 10:15:16 AM

But are displayed as (top row someone has pressed enter to apply the Excel formatting).

 

Excel Fields.png

 

 

 

I want the excel display formatting to be applied, is it possible to either:

 

1. Do this as part of the flow (e.g., a command to update/refresh the cell at the end?)

2. Change the format output in the Convert Time Zone so it outputs in the desired display format (eg 11:39, Tuesday...) however from testing it seems to cause problems with Excel correctly recognizing the cell as a date/time when entered in that way.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Update:

1. Per the advice of @ChristianAbata, I created a new file with General Excel format and used 3 Convert Time Zone functions with the same date and time and different formats.

Formats I used to produce the different outputs were:

 
First variable(note this a standard/universal time format from Flow):
{
"baseTime": "2020-02-28T02:45:13.2869759Z",
  "formatString": "f",
  "sourceTimeZone": "UTC",
  "destinationTimeZone": "AUS Eastern Standard Time"
}
Second variable:
{
"baseTime": "2020-02-28T02:45:13.1775979Z",
  "formatString": "dd/MM/yyyy  h:mm:ss tt",
  "sourceTimeZone": "UTC",
  "destinationTimeZone": "AUS Eastern Standard Time"
}
 
Third variable:
{
"baseTime": "2020-02-28T02:45:13.3026024Z",
  "formatString": "H:mm, dddd, d MMMM yyyy",
  "sourceTimeZone": "UTC",
  "destinationTimeZone": "AUS Eastern Standard Time"
}
 
I had each of these output to a different column in my test file with Excel general formatting.
 
In a 4th column I manually entered a date+time.
Note that in Excel the default format for holding a date time format is in the following (at least in my Australian settings):
29/02/2020  12:00:00 AM

This matches the second Convert Time Zone format output, which is why I had been using that.
 
Within excel, I was able to perform operations (such as counting time difference by subtracting) on the column I had manually entered dates, and the second Convert Time Zone output (which matches the standard excel format for holding date + time in a single celL).
 
However this did not work on the other two time formats.
 
Within Excel I then changed the cell format to "Date". Again the 1st and 3rd outputs did not update, while the second did. Operations on the 1st and 3rd output columns still didn't work either.
 
So in summary the result of testing is:
1. In Flow to Excel there seems to be a limitation where date and time combination formats are not recognised by Excel, especially if text is included (eg day of week "Monday" etc.)
2. Date and time format can be recognised by Excel where the Flow is pushing through a date time close enough to the Excel format for it to recognised. For example in my flow I was able to get a date and time from flow to Excel working by having the flow match the normal format Excel stores a date/time. However even in this case, the cell will not update automatically to a preferred cell display format.

However I was able to find a resolution as follows:
Since in case we wanted to display a long format for our users, I was able to resolve the issue rather clunkily by doing the following:
1. In my flow I had the date/time applied in the same format as the second ConvertTimeZone (note: if you are not using a date month year format you may need to use a different one to me) to a hidden column
2. In Excel, since it was able to parse the output of step 1 correctly as a date time (just not display correctly), I applied the following formula to pick up the datetime and display it correctly =TEXT(IF([@[COLUMN REFERENCE FOR HIDDEN COLUMN]]="","",[@[COLUMN REFERENCE FOR HIDDEN COLUMN]]), "hh:mm, dddd dd mmmm yyyy")

View solution in original post

9 REPLIES 9
Jcook
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hello,

I think the best way would be to apply the formatting to the excel table

—Josh
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v-alzhan-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @CNIL ,

 

As @Jcook  has suggested, you should format the Date column in your excel table, and the date would be inserted to the Data column with the Data type of the column.

 

Best regards,

Alice       

 

Community Support Team _ Alice Zhang
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

 

 

Thanks for your replies @v-alzhan-msft and @Jcook , however just to confirm the issue is as follows:

 

1. In Excel I have a custom cell format set up already

 

2. If I manually type in "25/02/2020  11:39:45 AM" to the Formula bar, within Excel, it will apply the custom cell number formatting.

This means the cell formula will be 25/02/2020  11:39:45 AM, and display as "11:39, Tuesday, 25 February 2020"

 

3. If the cell is updated via the flow instead, within the Formula bar it will correct say "25/02/2020  11:39:45 AM", however the cell will also display as "25/02/2020  11:39:45 AM" i.e., not picking up the custom number format

Jcook
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

Hi @CNIL

What about if you change the formatting on the excel table to general. That way excel won’t try and do a conversion

—Josh
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CNIL
Frequent Visitor

I want Excel to do the conversion - but it's not happening for cells updated via the Update Rows step.

ChristianAbata
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

hi @CNIL  as @Jcook  says please try createing a new file without cells formating and try to send your date, normally when you do this Excel convert to the format that is by default.



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Update:

1. Per the advice of @ChristianAbata, I created a new file with General Excel format and used 3 Convert Time Zone functions with the same date and time and different formats.

Formats I used to produce the different outputs were:

 
First variable(note this a standard/universal time format from Flow):
{
"baseTime": "2020-02-28T02:45:13.2869759Z",
  "formatString": "f",
  "sourceTimeZone": "UTC",
  "destinationTimeZone": "AUS Eastern Standard Time"
}
Second variable:
{
"baseTime": "2020-02-28T02:45:13.1775979Z",
  "formatString": "dd/MM/yyyy  h:mm:ss tt",
  "sourceTimeZone": "UTC",
  "destinationTimeZone": "AUS Eastern Standard Time"
}
 
Third variable:
{
"baseTime": "2020-02-28T02:45:13.3026024Z",
  "formatString": "H:mm, dddd, d MMMM yyyy",
  "sourceTimeZone": "UTC",
  "destinationTimeZone": "AUS Eastern Standard Time"
}
 
I had each of these output to a different column in my test file with Excel general formatting.
 
In a 4th column I manually entered a date+time.
Note that in Excel the default format for holding a date time format is in the following (at least in my Australian settings):
29/02/2020  12:00:00 AM

This matches the second Convert Time Zone format output, which is why I had been using that.
 
Within excel, I was able to perform operations (such as counting time difference by subtracting) on the column I had manually entered dates, and the second Convert Time Zone output (which matches the standard excel format for holding date + time in a single celL).
 
However this did not work on the other two time formats.
 
Within Excel I then changed the cell format to "Date". Again the 1st and 3rd outputs did not update, while the second did. Operations on the 1st and 3rd output columns still didn't work either.
 
So in summary the result of testing is:
1. In Flow to Excel there seems to be a limitation where date and time combination formats are not recognised by Excel, especially if text is included (eg day of week "Monday" etc.)
2. Date and time format can be recognised by Excel where the Flow is pushing through a date time close enough to the Excel format for it to recognised. For example in my flow I was able to get a date and time from flow to Excel working by having the flow match the normal format Excel stores a date/time. However even in this case, the cell will not update automatically to a preferred cell display format.

However I was able to find a resolution as follows:
Since in case we wanted to display a long format for our users, I was able to resolve the issue rather clunkily by doing the following:
1. In my flow I had the date/time applied in the same format as the second ConvertTimeZone (note: if you are not using a date month year format you may need to use a different one to me) to a hidden column
2. In Excel, since it was able to parse the output of step 1 correctly as a date time (just not display correctly), I applied the following formula to pick up the datetime and display it correctly =TEXT(IF([@[COLUMN REFERENCE FOR HIDDEN COLUMN]]="","",[@[COLUMN REFERENCE FOR HIDDEN COLUMN]]), "hh:mm, dddd dd mmmm yyyy")
Jcook
Most Valuable Professional
Most Valuable Professional

@CNIL

Can you try and have the column in excel as general.
Now instead of passing excel the converted time from flow.
I want you to first apply this expression to the converted time:
string()

Add your converted time into the ()
You can use a Compose action to do this expression.

Now pass the Compose action into excel

—Josh
If you like my post please hit the "Thumbs Up" -- If my post solved your issue please "Mark as a Solution" to help others

Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution!

If you like my post please hit the Thumbs Up


Proud to be a Flownaut!


Check out my blog for Power Automate tips,
tricks, and guides
FlowAltDelete





CNIL
Frequent Visitor

Hi @Jcook thanks for giving this one a try, still no luck unfortunately on fixing it within Flow.

 

I was hopeful we might be able to get this working in Flow, so I tested applying a Compose step to the output of convert time zone and applying it to both a new spreadsheet with General formatted cells, and a different spreadsheet with the custom cells.

 

Unfortunately this hasn't changed the behaviour at all - I think the solution identified earlier is still the best one.

 

Just to be really clear about what I was trying to do:

1. I need the output to be correctly interpreted by Excel as a Date Time, in order to conduct operations on it in Excel (e.g., calculating time in motion among other things)

2. I want to display in a custom number format in Excel (note this does not change the actual data for a date time in for that cell within Excel, as shown in the formula bar).

 

Applying the desired custom number format (including time, "Monday 28 Feb" etc etc) through Flow resulted in Excel being unable to parse it correctly as a date time (failing requirement 1)

Applying the standard Excel format for date time through Flow allowed Excel to correctly operate on it as a datetime but not display the custom number format already applied to the cell (failing requirement 2)

 

To resolve this I added an intermediate step in Excel such that:

1. Flow to Excel - supply a datetime in a format that Excel can recognise as a datetime

2. Within Excel - use a TEXT formula to take the datetime, and apply the desired number format

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