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Ibrahimkhalil
Helper I
Helper I

how to compare Dates in microsoft flow

Hi,

 

i have a list of items, thier details are saved in an excel sheet in Documents in sharepoint.

 

what i want is that to compare the dates of each of the items in that excel sheet with the current date, if it matchs it will send email.

 

i built the flow but i have an issue that condition is always false becasue the date is read as value from excel not as date format. for example 2019-04-24  will be taken as 43579 which will fail the condition.

 

any help please ..

 

thanks,

Ibrahim 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
v-yamao-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Ibrahimkhalil ,

 

As @Brad_Groux  suggested, date column will be returned as plain integers instead of date and time format when working with Excel online (Business) and Excel Online (OneDrive) connectors.

 

However, you may try if the following workaround will work for you.

 

Before start the flow, format the date column to Text then input the date manually in the Excel file.

1.PNG

 

Then start the flow likes below. The function used in the condition is:

 

formatDateTime(items('Apply_to_each')?['Start'],'yyyy-MM-dd')

is equal to

utcNow('yyyy-MM-dd')

 

2.PNG

 

Best regards,

Mabe

 

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

View solution in original post

9 REPLIES 9
Brad_Groux
Community Champion
Community Champion

Both of the Excel Online (Business) and Excel Online (OneDrive) connectors will always return the date column as plain integers instead of the date/time format. The original Excel Connector could return the date and time, but that connector is now deprecated.

Due to the reduced functionality and strict limitations (especially file lockout times) of the Excel Online connectors, Flow experts tend to agree that you should avoid using the Excel Online connectors at all cost. Instead, you could create and/or update a SharePoint list via the Excel document, and then pull the date/time from the SharePoint list data.

If this reply has answered your question or solved your issue, please mark this question as answered. Answered questions helps users in the future who may have the same issue or question quickly find a resolution via search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. THANKS!

v-yamao-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Ibrahimkhalil ,

 

As @Brad_Groux  suggested, date column will be returned as plain integers instead of date and time format when working with Excel online (Business) and Excel Online (OneDrive) connectors.

 

However, you may try if the following workaround will work for you.

 

Before start the flow, format the date column to Text then input the date manually in the Excel file.

1.PNG

 

Then start the flow likes below. The function used in the condition is:

 

formatDateTime(items('Apply_to_each')?['Start'],'yyyy-MM-dd')

is equal to

utcNow('yyyy-MM-dd')

 

2.PNG

 

Best regards,

Mabe

 

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

@v-yamao-msft, I have an array of dates from JSON in my flow, how would I compare the array of dates to a single date in string format?

LaiSha
Frequent Visitor

Hello,

I have an issue. I have been trying to compare dates to send reminder. There is no error but I don't get the email reminder. Therefore, I need help to check if this part of my date comparison is not correct. Thank you.

 

LaiSha_0-1610650578636.png

 

LaiSha
Frequent Visitor

I just realised the photo for the code part is not clear. Below is the statement:

formatDateTime(addDays(utcnow(),30),'MM/dd/yyyy')

Hi, I have a silly question and I hope you can point me in the right direction:

 

In my sharepoint list I have a column "ContractEnd". I would like to send an email when that contract date value is equal to or less than today + 30 days. I mean I want to send me an email that the contract will expire in 30 days or less.

 

Do you know how can I get this to be implemented in my flow?

 

thanks in advance

 

PPG-Ezra
Helper I
Helper I

@sajarac did you find a solution to your ContractEnd flow requirement? I am seeking something very similar and having a difficult time formulating a query if 'Date' is less than 90 days from now.

 

Thank you

sajarac
Kudo Kingpin
Kudo Kingpin

Hi @PPG-Ezra , I had to implement something that it is probably not the best option but is working fine so far.

 

sajarac_0-1643296876752.png

 

The filter query is based in 2 conditions if the leaseEndDate column is less than or equals to today + 30 days and the column Zendesknotified is equal to No.

 

sajarac_1-1643297045810.png

 

This helped me so much with a similar flow! Thank you for being so thorough with the functions & screenshots in your response. 

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