Invalid Template in 'formatDateTime'

[Sebastian_10]

Hello all,

I have a problem in my flow. Somehow, when I perform the “Send e-mail” action in my workflow, an error message appears saying that it cannot correctly access the “Service entry” field in my sharepoint list. The action is “Retrieve items” The following error message appears here:

Unable to process template language expressions in action 'E-Mail_senden_(V2)' inputs at line '0' and column '0': 'The template language function 'formatDateTime' expects its first parameter to be of type string. The provided value is of type 'Null'

= formatDateTime(outputs('Elemente_abrufen')?['body/Eintrittsdatum'],'dd.MM.yyyy')

Thank you in advance!

BR
Sebastian

[v-yetonggu-msft]

Hi @Sebastian_10 ,

Please try this expression:

if(empty(outputs('Elemente_abrufen')?['body/Eintrittsdatum']),null,formatDateTime(outputs('Elemente_abrufen')?['body/Eintrittsdatum'],'dd/MM/yyyy'))

Best Regards,

Sunshine Gu

[pengwei]

Hi @Sebastian_10 

You may check in the SharePoint list whether value in the formatdatetime is null/empty.

One way is to use a Compose action to capture the information from SharePoint list.

[Sebastian_10]

Hi @v-yetonggu-msft ,

Ok that worked, but why does it not recognize my entry with the date in the sharepoint list? Now it spits out an empty field. Do you know that?

BR

Sebastian

[Sebastian_10]

Hi @pengwei ,

yes, I think that is excectly the problem but I have the datas, thats why I am confused.

[v-yetonggu-msft]

Hi @Sebastian_10 ，

What can be recognized is the Date that has been filled in your Date column, but if the Date is empty, flow cannot recognize it, which involves a problem of converting to null.

So I wrote in the expression that if the Date column is empty, convert to null, if not then format the date.

Hope you can understand.

Best Regards,

Sunshine Gu

[v-yetonggu-msft]

Hi @Sebastian_10 ,

Okay, I understand what you mean, I will modify my statement.

The date you filled in the 'Eintrittsdatum' column does not meet the string/date format and is considered empty.

Best Regards,

Sunshine Gu

[Sebastian_10]

Yes, I understand that, thank you for that.
I have now also tried using only the date field, without formatDateTime, and it recognizes it normally. The problem is somewhere in the expression FormatDateTime...

[Sebastian_10]

Hi @v-yetonggu-msft ,

Yes exactly, sorry if I expressed myself incorrectly!!

[v-yetonggu-msft]

Hi @Sebastian_10 ，

I misunderstood it. It was a problem with expression references.

Please try this expression:

items('Auf_alle_anwenden')?['Eintrittsdatum']

Best Regards,

Sunshine Gu

[Sebastian_10]

Hi @v-yetonggu-msft ,

so you mean:

formatDateTime(items('Auf alle anwenden')?['Eintrittsdatum'],'dd.MM.yyyy')

right?

BR

Sebastian

[v-yetonggu-msft]

Hi @Sebastian_10 ，

No, there is no need to nest the formatDateTime function.

You only need to use the items('Auf_alle_anwenden')?['Eintrittsdatum'] formula.

I did a test for your reference.

In my scenario:

My Eintrittsdatum column:

My Flow:

items('Auf_alle_anwenden')?['Eintrittsdatum']

My outlook inbox:

Best Regards,

Sunshine Gu

[Sebastian_10]

Hi @v-yetonggu-msft ,

ok but then the format of the date is wrong in my scenario...

it should be '14.06.2024' so 'dd.MM.yyyy'

Maybe it is wrong because of the german version? But why I can't use the formatDateTime correctly?

But thank you very very much for your help and your commitment!

BR

Sebastian

[v-yetonggu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Sebastian_10 ,

If you want to convert the 'dd.MM.yyyy' format to the 'yyyy-MM-dd' format,please see this test:

formatDateTime(parseDateTime(replace(items('Auf_alle_anwenden')?['Eintrittsdatum'],'.','/'),'fr-fr'),'yyyy-MM-dd')

My Outlook Inbox:

Best Regards,

Sunshine Gu

[Sebastian_10]

Hi @v-yetonggu-msft ,

I found a solution for this case:

formatDateTime(parseDateTime(replace(items('Auf_alle_anwenden')?['Eintrittsdatum'],'.','/'),'fr-fr'),'dd.MM.yyyy').

Thanks to your suggestions, I figured it out.

BR

Sebastian