Condition returning true when it is false. Excel sheet with inventory levels and reorder points. Send email when an item is below reorder point and nothing is on order.

[ChrisG13]

I'm having a problem with my first flow.  It is working as expected except one row is returning true when it is false.   I apologize for my lack of good formatting here on this post, I'm very new to this.

This is the raw input to the conditional after running a test flow.  There are actually 84 rows but this one single row triggers the false positive. 

          "@odata.etag": "",

            "ItemInternalId": "d53d36ad-ac53-4b38-a232-e27f9d929236",

            " ": "0",

            "Inventory ID": "Reel Stencil",

            "Vendor": "CARRIS REELS INC",

            "Description": "Reel Stencil, Plus Freight Cost",

            "Unit price": "2.2",

            "Quantity in stock": "300",

            "Inventory value": "660",

            "Reorder level": "40",

            "Reorder time in days": "0",

            "Quantity in reorder": "0",

            "Discontinued?": "",

            "Barcode": "*Reel Stencil*"

Key values are: 

 "Quantity in stock": "300",

 "Reorder level": "40",

 "Quantity in reorder": "0",

 "Discontinued?": "",

 "Inventory ID": "Reel Stencil"

My condition is:

Hard to get a screenshot as I can't expand the left side panel.  It reads:

AND

"Quantity in stock" is less or equal to "Reorder Level"

AND

"Quantity in reorder is less or equal to "Reorder Level"

AND

"Discontinued" does not contain "Yes"

AND

"Inventory ID" is not equal to "" (blank)

This is the code view for the if statements. 

Originally i didn't have this structured as such, i had 4 "rows" all under one AND but thought maybe i need to keep nesting the statements so i re-did the conditional adding each one as a new group but the results were the same.  

So you can see from the input above for this row that the quantity in stock is not less than the reorder level (300 in stock, 40 reorder level).  But this condition keeps returning true when I test the flow?

Even asking copilot to describe the flow it seems to be set correctly?

"This flow is triggered daily at 8:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. It retrieves rows from a table in a SharePoint document library. For each row, it checks if the quantity in stock is less than or equal to the reorder level, the quantity in reorder is less than or equal to the reorder level, the item is not discontinued, and the inventory ID is not empty. If all conditions are met, an email is sent to "[REDACTED]" with the subject "Processing Inventory Items Low" and the body containing the inventory ID, vendor, and description of the low stock item.

My sheet has 84 rows in the table, for testing i have it set so only one record should trigger the email, which that record does.  But for some reason this one single row keeps triggering a false true.  I made sure the excel sheet is formatted to numbers but it did not help.  

any ideas why this row would be triggering the email?  

[creativeopinion]

@ChrisG13 Your Condition action is pretty complex. I would recommend troubleshooting each condition argument. A lot of times a false value (when you are expecting a true value) has to do with the dynamic content output not matching what you are expecting. Use a Compose action to output the dynamic content before your condition. Rename your Compose actions so it's easy to identify which Compose action is outputting which dynamic content. 

This way you can evaluate if your condition arguments need to be adjusted.

I cover how to do this in this YT Tutorial: 5 Power Automate Troubleshooting FAQs and Helpful Tips for Creating Better Flows

In this tutorial I cover:

✅ How to troubleshoot a false Condition action result

✅ How to get dynamic content when it isn’t selectable from the list of dynamic content

✅ How to troubleshoot an Apply to Each action that isn’t looping through

✅ How to troubleshoot a skipped Apply to Each action

✅ How to troubleshoot a Filter Query

✅ How to use a SharePoint yes/no column in a Filter Query

✅ How to use Compose actions to troubleshoot a Power Automate flow

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple emails being sent

✅ How to troubleshoot multiple Teams messages being sent

You could also consider a Filter Query and/or a Filter Array action to filter out items first before running additional condition checks. I would personally recommend a Filter Array action instead—it would be a more efficient.

To learn more about how to use the Filter Array action, please refer to this YT Tutorial: Are you using the Microsoft Power Automate Filter Array Action wrong?

In this video tutorial I’ll show you 3 practical ways to use the Filter Array action and how to use it properly.

1️⃣ Cross-Referencing Data

2️⃣ Filtering by Key

3️⃣ Substring Matching

Did you know that the Condition action has a limit of 10 conditions? Although it might look like the Filter Array action can only accept one condition—this is not true. By using the advanced mode you can enter multiple conditions into a Filter Array action with an expression.

IN THIS VIDEO:

✅ 3 Ways to Use the Filter Array Action

✅ How to use the Scope Action to Group Actions

✅ How to Check the Number of Items returned from a Filter Array Action

✅ How to Cross-Reference Data in Excel with a SharePoint List

✅ How the Filter Array Action Works

✅ How to Access the Dynamic Content from a Filter Array Action

✅ How to Filter Items by a Key

✅ How to Filter Items by Matching a Substring

✅ How to Use Multiple Conditions in a Filter Array Action

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response! If you're feeling generous— ☕️  Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/acreativeopinion

👉 Watch my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok

[ChrisG13 · Accepted solution]

I couldn't get your solution to work, but that is because of my lack of knowledge on how filters work, but I ended up making this work by doing the following:

Reordered my conditions to check for the Discontinued not equaling Yes and Inventory ID not equal to "" first and second, i was getting errors doing an int comparison on a blank value.

Then i did my numerical comparisons as an expression type int instead of the default

this is now how my conditional looks: 

[creativeopinion]

@ChrisG13 No worries. Though I would recommend you learn how to use the Filter Array action as it can make your flow a lot more efficient. Right now you are looping through each of your Excel row items and running a condition check on every item. 

With the Filter Array action, you are essentially filtering out the items you want to loop through before looping through them. It will make your flow run a lot more efficiently.

Hope this helps!

If I helped you solve your problem—please mark my post as a solution ✅.
Consider giving me a 👍 if you liked my response! If you're feeling generous— ☕️  Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/acreativeopinion

👉 Watch my tutorials on YouTube
👉 Tips and Tricks on TikTok