@less as condition does not work property

[DenisMolodtsov]

I have a Flow that runs based on a schedule. It detects a case when the last SharePoint list item is older than 30 minutes. I've successfully retreived the last SharePoint list item and outputted Created field value to debug list. Now, I'm trying to determine if this value is older than 30 minutes or not. Seems simple? Well, I've wasted about 2 hours figuring out how to do a proper date comparison condition in Flow and need help with it.

I've got this explression in the conditionn:

less(formatDateTime(string(body('Get_items')?['value'][0].Created), 'yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm'), formatDateTime(addminutes(utcnow(), 30), 'yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm'))

As an example, first parameter that is passed to the less function is equals to 2017-12-14 04:02. second is equal to 2017-12-14 04:33.

Nevertheless, less returns false instead of true.

I've also tried these ways of comparison:

less(string(body('Get_items')?['value'][0].Created), addminutes(utcnow(), 30))

less(body('Get_items')?['value'][0].Created, addminutes(utcnow(), 30)

When examples above are used I either get the same results or an error.

Can someone help me figuring out why less returns false when it has to be true and what am I doing wrong?

[JonL]

I can see the post here. Why do you assume no one can see it? cause of no response?

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @Zerg00s,

Could you please share a full screenshot of your flow’s configuration?

Do you want to check if the last item of your SharePoint list is 30 minutes older than the created time?

I think there is something wrong with your formula, I have made a test on my side and the flow works well. My flow’s configuration as below:

Within Condition box, click “Edit in advanced mode”, type the following formula:

@less(formatDateTime(items('Apply_to_each')?['Created'], 'yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm'), formatDateTime(addMinutes(utcNow(), -30), 'yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm'))

The flow works successfully as below:

If the last item is not older than 30 minutes, the flow works successfully as below:

Best regards,

Kris

[DenisMolodtsov]

I assumed noone could see it becacuse:

1) this post was not visible in the list of posts

2) I've explained the problem:

When I try opening the post's URL in another browser without logging in I get this:

"The topic you are trying to access is not available.

Return to my original page"

I've asked a couple of colleagues to open the link and they also received "The topic you are trying to access is not available."

The topic opens now, but clearly it was not not available for at least 4 days. I did not change anything.  

[DenisMolodtsov]

I've split the forula into two Compose blocks:

Output 1 "Last Heart Beat": 

formatDateTime( string(addMinutes(body('Get_items')?['value'][0].Created, 30) ), 'yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss')

Output 2 "Now":

formatDateTime(utcnow(),'yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss')

Then, I've changed the condition to:'

Output is less than Output

It now works just fine.

I'm not sure what exactly helped. It could the the date format or something else. I have no idea. All I can say is comparing the dates in Flow is a pain in the neck. I wish Flow had better integration with SharePoint. This solutin feels increibly dirty even though I'm sure I've done everything correctly. Also, when I've createad two "Compose" blocks but in the "Condition" block they both look like "Output". I've lost about an hour because both of these were refering to the same output and it was not obvious.

[v-xida-msft]

Hi @DenisMolodtsov,

Even though the values that you filled whtin left input box and right input box of Condition box have same name, but they represents diffenent content.

The value that you filled within left box of Condition box is the output of your "LastHeartbeat" action (Compose action), the value that you filled within right box of Condition is the output of your "Now" action (Compose) action.

In addition, you could click "Edit in advanced mode" within Condition box, you would find that the two Output dynamic contents represent different content.

If you want to change the name of Output dynamic content of "Compose" action, I afraid that there is no way to achieve this in Microsoft Flow currently.

Best regards,

Kris

[DenisMolodtsov]

Hi @v-xida-msft

I'm not sure why you decided to reply to the solved question, but thank you. 

"Even though the values that you filled whtin left input box and right input box of Condition box have same name, but they represents diffenent content."

I know, and I think you will agree that it's a bad design. 

The right approach would be to give a more intuitive name like:

<Composite Box Name> + "Output"