Power Automate - Unable to pass null values for Date fields through Rest API to Save/Update SharePoint List Item

[nagarjunaking]

I'm trying to consume REST API to do CRUD operations.

However, unable to pass null value to Date Field for Saving/Updating SharePoint List Item

null() is also not working!

Please help me.

[ekarim2020]

Did you enter null as an expression?

[nagarjunaking]

Yes, I have tried. But I'm updating the DateField through Rest API where need to pass both Property & Value in Quotes in the BODY.

"<DateFieldName>": "<DateFieldValue>"

So, null() doesn't work.

[ekarim2020]

Can you post a screenshot? The example below is a flow from my dev site. I'm using dynamic content and expressions. Is it possible to use a variable, set it to Null and then use that variable?

Hope this helps.

Ellis

[nagarjunaking]

Thanks for the Screenshot but unfortunately I couldn't share due to some issues.

But if you see in your screenshot, for the Date Field we have to pass null value like "FieldValue": null()

And it doesn't work due to Format. And the Value should be wrapped in quotes  "FieldValue": "2021-07-15"

That's how it is causing issue to set Date field to null()

[ekarim2020]

The null value was entered in to the Expression editor, not typed as text into the body  of the HTTP request

I was expecting it to look like:

Ellis

[nagarjunaking]

It will throw error since using a function inside quotes.

[ekarim2020]

Try passing null as value and not as a function.

This is how I was able to set a date to null using the Send HTTP request to SharePoint:

Execute the flow:

Note the date value being set for Contract End Date:

So setting null value for the date is the same as writing "FieldValue": ""

Hope this helps.

Ellis

[nagarjunaking]

I'm also using Send HTTP Request but in the Body not using FORM but directly mentioning the data in JSON as below since I have close to 50-100 fields and getting error "Cannot convert a primitive value to the expected type "Edm.DateTime":

{

   "Contract End Date": "fxnull"

}

[nagarjunaking]

In the Output, I can see below:

{

   "Contract End Date": ""

}

[Kevin_J_Roy]

I tried using the empty() function.  It works just fine (with a Sharepoint Date column as the argument) if inside a "Set Variable" or in the body of an email, but if used in a Condition control, always evaluates to true.  After trying many variations of the same, I found a solution:

1) Create an "Initialize Variable" - call it, for example, "formatted_date"

2) Create a Scope control element.

3) Inside the scope control element, insert a "Set variable".   Enter the expression "formatDateTime({your date variable}, {any date formatting string})

4) Below that Scope element, create a second Scope control element.  CLick the elipses and then click "Configure Run After".   IF you want your code to run only when the date exists, select the "is successful" checkbox.  If you want your code to run only when the date field is empty, select the "has failed" checkbox.

5) Place all the code you want to execute for that condition inside the second Scope element.

If the situation is if-else (i.e. run one set of statements if the date exists and another if the date doesn't exist), you can probably click the plus sign in between the two Scope elements and select "Add a parallel branch".

P.S. a thanks to Akash at O365 Academy for the video Error handling in Power Automate (2021) | Try, Catch, Finally in Power Automate - Bing video for showing me the use of the Scope control to mimic "try-catch" functions

[Disc0veryX]

The simple solution, I've founded, just put null in single quotes. For example, for the RegDate field I use the following expression (without putting it in double quotes, see screenshot):

if(equals(items('Apply_to_each')?['registration_date'], null), 'null', concat('"', parseDateTime(items('Apply_to_each')?['registration_date']), '"'))

[naghuntdworld]

Thanks for the response and I already fixed with the same solution last year.