Power Automate to check top 25 incoming emails in Inbox and filter for specific email subject name and Email Received Date and send email notification if found/not found.

[qjr88]

Hi,

My Power Automate skills is at beginner/intermediate level, I have already created a Recurrence flow to automatically check for last 25 emails in my email Inbox and filter for specific email subject name, when found send email out to notify of successful and when not found send email to warn of failure.  

This flow is working, I need to add one more filter condition, to check if the date inside the "ReceivedDateTime" matches my flow's Date stored in the variable.

Here's my flow.

Currently, I already had a filter on "Subject" to check all the top 25 emails where the subject name is equal to this filter value.

I need help to add another condition to check the email "ReceivedDateTime" the date portion ONLY to matches the "FlowRunDate" (dd-MM-yyyy), the date variable I stored at the beginning of this flow.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Qjr.

[creativeopinion]

@qjr88 

Run a test. Ensure the Convert time zone action is returning the correct timezone. 

Format Your Date

It's important to note the format of the Received DateTime. If you look at the output of the Get Emails action, this is the format (displayed below). Another thing to note is that Outlook will return the receivedDateTime in UTC (not in your local timezone. So you might not actually require the Convert Time Zone action (depends on when you are running your flow)

The reason it's important to note how the date is displayed is that you'll be using the contains operator in a Filter Array action to see if the ReceivedDateTime contains the date (only). For that reason, you'll need the date format to match.

Add a Compose action and use the formatDateTime() function.

Click on the Dynamic content tab and insert the Converted time.

Add a comma and single quotes. In between the single quotes insert this date format:

yyyy-MM-dd

Get Emails

Add a Get Emails action. While you are testing and building your flow, I would recommend limiting the Top count to a smaller number. You can adjust this once you've confirmed your flow works. This will help to speed up your flow run. 

Filter Array

Add a Filter Array action to your flow. Because you are already filtering out your emails by Subject in the Get Emails (V3) action, it's not necessary to filter the subject in the Filter Array action—unless I am missing something. 

In the From field, insert the value dynamic content from the Get Emails (V3) action. 

Change the operator to contains. Insert the output from the Compose action storing the formatted date into the second value field. 

Whenever I use a Filter Array action, I always like to return the count of items returned in a Compose action. This is helpful when building a flow and can also be used to troubleshoot your flow. Insert a Compose action.

Add an Expression. Use the length() function.

Select the Dynamic content tab and insert the body dynamic content from the Filter Array action into the length() function.

Run a test. 

Dynamic Subject Line + Email Body

Instead of using a Condition action and two Send an Email actions, you can compose the Subject and Email Body with dynamic content and the if() function. 

I like to use Compose action when doing this so I can confirm the content first and run tests without having to wait for an email to arrive. Once your Compose actions are ready you can insert them into the Send an Email action and run more tests to ensure the email format is correct and make adjustments as needed.

Add a Compose action to store the subject line. Add the equals() function. Click on the dynamic content tab and select the output from the Compose action storing the count of items.

Add a comma and a 0. This expression is checking to see if the output of the Compose action is equal to 0. If it is, it’ll return true. If not, it’ll return false. Run a test. Confirm that the output of this expression is correct.

Next, we need to wrap this expression in an if() function. The if() function takes three parameters. The first parameter is a condition that returns a boolan value (aka true or false), the second parameter is the value that is returned if the condition is true. The last parameter is the value returned if the condition is false.

Go to the start of the expression an insert if with an opening parenthesis. Take note of the tooltip when you are composing expressions. It'll bold the current parameter you are defining.

Go to the end of the expression by pressing the down arrow key. Add a comma and single quotes. Between the single quotes enter in the subject line you'd like to output if the output of the Compose action is equal to 0.  

Add another comma and single quotes.Between the single quotes enter in the subject line you'd like to output if the output of the Compose action is not equal to 0.  

Don't forget to add a closing bracket.

Run a test. Confirm the Compose action is outputting the proper subject line based on the number of items returned from the Filter Array action. 

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 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

Insert as many Compose actions as you need to compose the email body. You can insert dynamic content into the email body by using the same expression as we've done above.

I would recommend running tests on just the compose actions until they are outputting the content as you expect before you even add the Send an Email (V2) action.

Once you've confirmed the output of your Compose actions, insert the outputs into the Send an Email (V2) action.

For more flow troubleshooting tips—check out 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

Hope this helps!

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