Excel Online Date

[vecerpa]

Hello,

I have question if there is a chance to compare Date from Excel Online Business connector to utcnow().

The scenario is that I'm loading excel table via connector Excel Online Business

I see that the format that is being loaded into Flow is

 

In excel there is correctly displayed

So I'm wondering how to compare it against utcnow(), what transformation I need to perform before I can use expression like utcnow in between StartDate and EndDate that is loaded from Excel sheet.

Thank you for help

[v-yuazh-msft]

Hi @vecerpa,

I have made a test on my side and I afraid that there is no any way to compare a date from Excel Online Business connector to utcnow().

The date form  Excel Online Business connector  are always with format like "43225", and there is no any way to format it to ISO 8601 format and than compare with utcnow().

If you want to date in the Excel Online Business connector would be a ISO 8601 format, and the you could compare the date with utcnow, please submit an idea to Flow Ideas Forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Flow-Ideas/idb-p/FlowIdeas

As an alternative way,If you want to format a date in excel with utcnow(), please save the excel table in Onedrive for business , and the use the Excel connector instead of Excel Online Business connector to achieve your needs.

Best regards,

Alice

[vecerpa · Accepted solution]

Hi @v-yuazh-msft,

I found workaround for this as the number that is being delivered from excel online is count of days since 01/01/1900, I created variable that adds number delivered from excel online to this date and now I can work with it inside Flow 🙂

addDays('1900-01-01T00:00:00Z',int(item()?['Start Date']))

P.

[v-yuazh-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @vecerpa,

I find that the expression that you mentioned would get a date that is two days more than the date in the Start Date column:

addDays('1900-01-01T00:00:00Z',int(item()?['Start Date']))

Maybe you need to add a sub() to the expression.

Best regards,

Alice

[vecerpa · Accepted solution]

Hi @v-yuazh-msft,

You are right.

I was digging for a while how Excel is storing date and I found out that http://www.cpearson.com/excel/datetime.htm. So now it is more clear that this number that is comming from Excel is really specific 🙂

So the corrected expression is below

addDays('1900-01-01T00:00:00Z',sub(int(item()?['Start Date']),2))

Thank you

P.

[KarlChristopher]

I have the same problem but may I see how you do this on flow? I'm getting errors regarding not being able to parse integer when the excel we are using is clearly a datetime format.

[vecerpa]

Hi @KarlChristopher

I am not parsing integer, I am just converting number comming from excel to int. Such integer I am using in adddays function as number of days (it have to be in integer format) that will be added to 1900-01-01T00:00:00Z. And as @v-yuazh-msft mentioned there is need to add two more days, as there is specific number comming from excel. So thats all.

P.

[KarlChristopher]

Managed to fixed it by not using a custom data type. Somehow it does not work when I add time in my excel date? What do you think would be a good workaround for this?

it gets 45333.3xx or something, then I get the int error from Flow.

[Anonymous]

you change my day, thank you for the solution

[kev1234]

Hi Vecerpa,

I am also trying to compare excel date with today's date. I still can't figure out how you apply your solution?

From the picture, the left side is the date value of "43531" from Excel Online (Business) connector. So how do i compare it with today's date? I was thinking of using utcnow, but how do i convert it to days?

Appreciate your help in this. Thanks.

Kevin 

[vecerpa]

Hello @kev1234 ,

It is described in accepted solution for this chain.

addDays('1900-01-01T00:00:00Z',sub(int(item()?['NOTiFY_...']),2))

There is need to use this adddays function that will add number of days that are in your case 43531-2 that means 43529 days to date 1.1.1900 and this compare against utcnow that means actual date.

So you have to replace left side of your conditon by this function that is above. You have to replace item()?['NOTIFY_...'] by item that is returning you number 43531.

P.

[kev1234]

Hi @vecerpa ,

Now i understand. Thank you so much for the clarification. I really appreciate it.

So below is my solution after applying your formula:

Left side of the equation

formatDateTime(addDays('1900-01-01',sub(int(item()?['NOTiFY_6M']),2)),'yyyy-MM-dd')

Right side of the equation

formatDateTime(utcNow(),'yyyy-MM-dd')

So both side will return a date string with the format of 'yyyy-MM-dd', e.g. 2019-03-07.

Thanks again @vecerpa 

[Stefano__]

Good afternoon,

I did try with this solution and it is not working for me. I am getting a conversion error when trying to convert the data string item()?['Date_column_name'] to int. Error is "int function is getting a not appropriate input value".

How do you think I can fix this?

Thank you

[vecerpa]

Hello @Stefano__ 

What does return your action that is loading data from excel file? As Microsoft Flow is evolving it is possible that this was changed.

P.

[Anonymous]

@vecerpa i see it has been some time since this has been accepted but i've been struggling a few hours now to get this process but am getting multiple errors. I'm wondering if you still have or could set up a similar situation and share screen shots? 

I'm also happy to share the problems im having and work down that route if that is preferred, thanks! 

[A_B_S]

If it is DateTime from excel online, getting parse error. How to proceed with DateTime?

My excel sheet sample