If item is text, then put utcNow()

[mcastine]

I have created a flow to watch an email box, filter specific emails (from a web form) and add them to a sharepoint list. I have a field that is supposed to only be dates but the web form allows anything to be entered (can't be changed). I have tried to put this in the compose for the Date but it seems to just ignore the first part, skip to the 2nd and then the flow fails when a non-date is entered. We need dates only in SP as we have a Calendar that utilizes these dates. We want to just want it to put a valid date instead. We can update the SP list when we view other fields.  

Here are some ideas I have tried: 

if(startsWith(outputs('Split_Body_Text')[6],string ('abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ')), utcNow(),formatDateTime(last(split(outputs('Split_Body_Text')[6], ': '))))

if(startsWith(outputs('EventDate'),string('')), utcNow(), formatDateTime(outputs('EventDate')))

It either fails because the date is not UTC or it puts in utcNow() when it should not be. Am I missing something or over thinking it? 

[v-dezhili-msft]

Hi @mcastine ，

Unfortunately, there is currently no way in flow to determine if a string is in ISO 8601 date format. So when there are strings in other formats as the first parameter of the formatDateTime() formula, an error will be reported.
I suggest that you can use the Scope action to split the flow into two branches. When the Scope operation succeeds, use the ISO 8601 date format string in your form, and when the Scope operation fails, use utcNow().

 

Best Regards,

Dezhi

[Expiscornovus]

Hi @mcastine,

Are they entering the date or the date and time in that web form?

Like you already mentioned, the event date would require a certain format. You could check for that format instead of the things which are not allowed in your expression.

Btw, you can probably also use a Regex for this but that would require some additional configuration like a custom connector or office script.

Let's first try and solve this with some expressions 😁

In this example I assume you only want to check the date (not the time): yyyy-MM-dd

Year check (yyyy)

isInt(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 0, 4))

First hyphen (-)

equals(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 4, 1), '-')

Month check (MM)

isInt(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 5, 2))

Second hyphen 

equals(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 7, 1), '-')

Day check (dd)

isInt(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 8, 2))

All together in one expression with the if and the UtcNow if it is not a date

if(and(and(and(and(isInt(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 0, 4)),equals(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 4, 1), '-')), isInt(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 5, 2))), equals(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 7, 1), '-')), isInt(substring(outputs('EventDate'), 8, 2))), formatDateTime(outputs('EventDate'), 'dd MMM yyyy'), utcNow())

Btw, you might also be able to add a length check, just in case:

equals(length(outputs('EventDate')), 10)

[mcastine · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much! I was able to use this code and it seems to be working as intended so far. If a user puts in "3/18/2023" it is keeping it and formatting it correctly. 

if(startsWith(outputs('EventDate'),string('')), utcNow(), formatDateTime(outputs('EventDate')))

I have a Compose that brings in the "last(split(outputs('Split_Body_Text')[6], ': '))". If the user puts in something like "March 10th..." then it will put todays date. The customer doesn't have an issue with it since the date is available in the Full Body field.