sharepoint update item with blank value

[Sandervk]

When using Sharepoin Update Item actions, does anyone know how to remove the current value meaning the new value should be blank or empty?

[dee2005]

Hi Again @Bob_Taylor ,

If you are referring to send an http request then it would probably be 

'Support_x005f_Resource'

The trick to finding this one is to run the flow without any actions then look at the results of that run and at the http request step look at the body section scroll through until you find the field.

[Bob_Taylor]

@dee2005,

Thank you for this. I never thought to run a GET HTTP Request to see the field names. This was very helpful. Got it working. 

[mgudites]

Can confirm, this worked well for me for changing values in a bunch of dropdown columns. Simply using a "null" expression directly in the "update item" box doesn't work, but setting a variable to "null" and referencing the variable in the "update item" dialog definitely worked.

[thedarkforge]

https://youtu.be/BrjobdJqvEQ this video by Deepak Shrivastava shows multiple ways to clear. I have tested and verified that these methods work as of today 3/10/2022 

[sachk1]

Can you tell me how to keep null in people column?

[sachk1]

whats is stringId?  this method not works for me. Can you help?

[Broo]

I can confirm that it works for string (text) columns as well whereas setting null directly in column update does not.

[AngusWalker]

People columns usually require "Claims" values. I just use the empty array: []

[armadillonoah]

This doesn't work for me.... cool idea though

[AngusWalker]

@armadillonoah Did you change the box to a text box:

This is from my live environment and works fine for me.

[eli-g]

****UPDATE*** SINCE POST - I SWITCHED TO CLASSIC DESIGN AND USED NULL EXPRESSION AND IT WORKED JUST FINE!

@mbntech @ONYXJas & others in the community! Revisiting this topic b/c neither the null expression nor the initialize blank variable are working.

The items I am updating are single line of text and date (where the date is an expression as shown in the first screenshot). I keep getting the same error whether I try to use null or blank variable approach. 

Any ideas on alternative options or how to correct?

Thank you!

[Agent87761]

While we do all sorts of magic and complex workarounds to fix this issue I spent a lot longer than I should have had on this and the answer was the most simple one. Thanks Chat GPT. And the best part is that it works.

In short in place of using the expression null you would use the expression ''.

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In Power Automate, when you want to update a SharePoint list item and set a field to NULL or blank, you need to handle it correctly, especially since SharePoint doesn't directly accept null values in updates.

To set a field to NULL or blank, you should use an empty string instead of null in the expression. Here's how you can do it:

Use an Empty String Expression:
When updating the item, use the expression '' (two single quotes) to represent an empty string.

Example JSON Expressions:

Condition Expression:

@equals(items('Apply_to_each')?['FieldName'], 'SomeConditionValue')

Update Item Expression for Blank Field:

''

Add an 'Update item' action:
Site Address: Your SharePoint site address
List Name: Your SharePoint list name
Id: The ID of the item you are updating
Field: Use the expression for an empty string
''
By using an empty string ('') instead of null, Power Automate will correctly update the SharePoint list item and set the field to blank.