"Convert text to datetime" getting an error

[crob]

I have the free version of PAD v2.43.217 on Windows 10 Pro. I'm doing a tutorial on Youtube. 

In the tutorial I have to read a cell from an Excel file with a date time that looks like "5/3/2024 12:00:00 AM" in the Power Automate variable section. But I' getting this error: 

Correlation Id: a06f1d39-7a7a-48d6-bdb3-bd1b1dfa3e3b

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.: Microsoft.PowerPlatform.PowerAutomate.Desktop.Actions.SDK.ActionException: The provided text value can't be converted into a valid datetime. ---> System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.
   at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.Text.Actions.ConvertTextToDateTimeAction.Execute(ActionContext context)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.Text.Actions.ConvertTextToDateTimeAction.Execute(ActionContext context)
   at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Robin.Engine.Execution.ActionRunner.Run(IActionStatement statement, Dictionary`2 inputArguments, Dictionary`2 outputArguments)

My "Convert text to datetime" action looks like this: 

I've tried this custom format but will try a non-custom format as I'm in the US and the spreadsheet seems to have US-formatted dates.

How do I get rid of this error? I've been trying different things for about an hour. 

I couldn't even find a reference for the symbols that represent datetime formats in the PAD documentation. 

[David_MA]

You can try using the following expression instead:

parseDateTime(variables('String Date'),'en-us','M/d/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt')

I tested this by putting the format you listed "5/3/2024 12:00:00 AM" into a variable and it works. Just replace the variable in the expression with the dynamic content of the string. If your string does not pass through in the format listed in the expression, it will fail.

This is what is returned, which is the ISO8601 date format:

[David_MA · Accepted solution]

P.S. I use this as a reference for the date/time expressions: formatDateTime in Power Automate in 2024 (sharepains.com)

[crob]

I got it working. The presenter of the tutorial is European and uses a different date format in their locality. But the date in the spreadsheet is in the US date format. So I turned off the custom date format to use the local (US) date format and it worked. 

Thanks.