The value of first parameter is of type 'Object' but the function 'substring' expects a string.

[JamesMoyle]

Hi All. First time caller!

I am trying to get an icalendar to update a sharepoint calendar via a scheduled flow. A really good article here that has got me most of the way there. However, my dates come from the ical in two forms. either

"DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210913"

or

"DTSTART:20210913T150000Z"

These are the outputs of a filter function called FIND_DTSTART

depending on whether they are just a date or date and time. I am trying to use a compose function so that they are all of the same string format

The code I am using is:

if(equals(substring(outputs('Find_DTSTART'),0,8),'DTSTART:'), replace(body('Find_DTSTART'),'DTSTART:',''), replace(body('Find_DTSTART'),'DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:',''))

So as per the title, what am I doing wrong? Why is it not picking it up as a string? 

thanks for any help you can give me

James

[JamesMoyle · Accepted solution]

OK, so I don't fully understand why the previous code didn't work, but I have solved it. I have changed the statement to a nested replace statement so there is no now if(equals) to deal with:

replace(replace(first(body('Find_DTSTART')), 'DTSTART:', ''), 'DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:', '')

much neater!