How to check the value of a Sharepoint Yes/No field in a switch condition?

[Anonymous]

I swear Microsoft is making things super difficult for super basic things.

Why is it so hard to check the value of a sharepoint Yes/No column in a flow? I checked 10 responses in this forum and they are all different.

Why do I need to:

- initialize a special variable;

- deal with triggervalues and stuff;

- deal with "null" values because apparently "unchecked" means "null"???

To simply check a Yes/No field. Why do I need to reinvent the wheel for this?

[Pstork1]

Switches are used for checking the value of a text string.  If you just want to do something different based on whether a yes/no field is yes or no then just use a condition, not a switch.  The following checks a SharePoint field to see if its Yes.  Nothing else is required.

• Trigger conditions are used if you want to keep the flow from running based on a Yes/No field. 
• I'm not sure where you saw something about a variable.  you will notice I used the True enumeration instead of yes, no, true, or false because there is a case sensitivity issue.
• Not sure what you mean about No meaning null.  If a yes/no field is set to no then its not null.  If a default is not applied in SharePoint then it might be null.  But that's SharePoint not Power Automate.

[PrasadAthalye]

In the condition, convert Yes no column to boolean and compare it with true... I believe this is simple way.

[Anonymous]

@Pstork1 @PrasadAthalye ,

I tried with a simple condition instead of a switch like you both mentioned. The result is the same.

 or

or

All 3 methods evaluate to false in any scenario. Regardless if the sharepoint list is checked/Yes.

[PrasadAthalye]

Can you convert left expression to bool as I requested and then test?

[Anonymous]

I can't see either function you applied in your screenshot.
1. What's the function on the left side of the condition?
2. What's the function in the "Set variable"? 

3. How do I deal with "null" since an unchecked value in sharepoint is considered null?

[Anonymous]

Update. Here's what I put in the left side of the condition.

Still, no matter what I do, the result is always false.

if(equals(triggerbody()?['Backup'],'Yes'),true,false)

or

if(equals(triggerbody()?['Backup'],true),'true','false')

Output:

[Pstork1]

Did you set a default on the column?  Is it a standard Yes/No column in SharePoint or is it a Choice column with Yes/No as the Choices?  What trigger are you using and how are you retrieving the Yes/No field?

As long as you set a default it should not be null whether its set to either yes or no.  As you can see from the following screenshots it works as I described.  

Flow definition

When field is set to Yes

When field is set to No

Could you provide some screenshots of your SharePoint list definition and the flow.  I'll try to suggest why its not working for you.

[engons]

I have spent two hours today dealing with the same issue with no result. The Yes/No field does not equals to null, false, true, False, True, (the same values into the expressions dialog), or any other idea I could have. Also, when the inputs of the condition are supposed to be null (empty), the condition receives no input and it is set to true! (Condition was that Yes/No fields are true).

I would never have imagined that evaluating a bool variable could be more difficult than programming in brain**bleep** language.

Can someone explain how does boolean variables are managed in power automate?

Thanks

[ChrisStahl]

For those that might struggle with this as I did, I found an answer: coalesce.

In my case, I had added a non-mandatory Yes/No column to a SharePoint list. Those columns populate as empty/null which is NOT the same as false in Power Automate, for those developers who (as I did) wrongly assumed it would.

I wanted to set a Boolean variable using the value stored in this Yes/No field (in this case, whether to send an email or not). So, first I tried:

which, of course, errored out when trying to set a null value to a Boolean.

One option was to set and then reset the values for all of the items in the list so that I knew everything was either true or false with no null values. However, this would not prevent the re-occurrence of this issue in the event another individual was added to the list.

Enter the coalesce function. This will return the first value in its set that is not blank

To use in my Set Variable step I wrote:

coalesce(outputs('Get_next_Teammember_by_ID')?['body/SendEmail'], false)

where ('Get_next_Teammember_by_ID') is a previous SharePoint 'Get item by ID' step.

So the step now looks like:

This prevented me from having to write several conditional checks that I found unnecessary.

I hope this helps someone else out!

[Anonymous]

In SP lists, Yes/No columns use a small tick to check when Yes. You can make this a bool by using true(checked/yes) or false(unchecked/no) from the dynamic Expressions fx, as in screenshot below.

[IuriiPalchuk]

Hi!

I'm struggling with Yes/No field too.

1) As @engons said, it doesn't equal to anything meaningful. I tried true, 'TRUE', 'True', 'true', 0, 1. 

2) In the same time, it is always equal to null or empty regardless of it's value.

3) I tried coalesce approah suggested by @ChrisStahl without any luck.

4) It is always empty if I convert it to string using string() function. Wrong! You can use string() function to convert value to a string: either 'TRUE', or 'FALSE', or blank value.

5) It is possible to convert it to boolean using bool() function but only if there no Blank values in SharePoint. If I add null-check prior to conversion, then it won't work because it is always empty or equals to null (see p. 2).

Here are my tests:

[Anonymous]

if(equals(string(dynamically select Value of ur True/False column), 'True'), 'Action if true','Action if false')

[IuriiPalchuk]

Hi @Anonymous !

As I did mention, string convertion always results in blank value. It is never equal to 'True' or anything else.

Oh gosh, looks like you're right! I just have re-run my test scenario and it definitely works.

[ObiRickC137]

I find it amusing and infuriating that after 2 years of this post being out there, there still isn't an answer to what should be the most basic of basic things. SharePoint has a yes/no field. In PowerAutomate you want to make a condition of Yes/No. As the people before have posted, the is literally nothing you can put in for the condition to meet yes

[Pstork1]

If you look at the reply immediately above yours you will find the answer. A Yes/No column in SharePoint is treated as a Boolean data type. So you need to test for true (yes) and false (no).  Where a lot of people have trouble is that instead of using the Expressions tab to enter the actual Boolean value they enter "True" or "False". Those sometimes work depending on the case you enter them as. But the Boolean value as an expression always works.  But no you can't test for Yes or No. If that's what you want then use a Choice column with those values.

Also, the original question here was about testing a Yes/no field using a Switch not a Condition. Switches require a string value so they won't work with Yes/No Boolean fields. Conditions will work if used correctly.

[ObiRickC137]

of course conditions work. this is so simple its beyond simple, but nobody can tell me, or in this entire string of comments, what SharePoint stores the Yes/No column as.

In a SharePoint form, it wouldn't be out of the question to have the slider for "i want something to happen" or "i don't want something to happen".  Like someone already stated, "i want a copy of the emai". If you do the slider in PowerApps, it looks nice, it changes color, you flip the switch from grey to green saying "i want this email".

SharePoint clearly stores something in that column, it displays as a check box in the column. But what does it store in the column that PowerAutomate can read?

In SharePoint Designer, this worked no problem with 1/0. That does not work here.

It is not a 1, yes, YES, true, TRUE, or True. I've tried them all.

[Anonymous]

Power Automate will always retrieve Yes/No columns as 'True' or 'False'. You can type is as String in your comparison expression. NB: Its case sensitive, just as I have typed above. 

[ObiRickC137]

that is what it says on paper, that it was Copilot said to do, that is what lots of people say on the internet, but I'm looking for someone who has actually made a SharePoint list, stored the Yes/No column, put in a condition that if True, moves forward, and didn't get an error.

This is the error when putting it True (case sensitive) Unable to process template language expressions for action 'Condition' at line '0' and column '0': 'The template language function 'contains' expects its first argument 'collection' to be a dictionary (object), an array or a string. The provided value is of type 'Boolean'.'.

[Pstork1]

As I said, SharePoint stores it as a Boolean. Its SharePoint that converts it to a Yes/No slider for the convenience of the user, but its stored as a True/False Boolean data type.