Deleting Dates in Dataverse

[Microbes]

When I edit Dataverse table in Excel and delete dates from a Date column and publish, the column rows default to zero (i.e. "01/01/1900").  Any ideas on how to actually clear dates from Date column?

[cchannon]

Not sure if this will work, but try changing the datatype of the column in excel to text. Excel stores an integer representation of dates so those cells might not actually be empty, even though they look empty.

[Microbes]

@cchannon  Unfortunately this doesn't work. Excel actually formats it as a Custom column even though it is a Date column in Dataverse.  I did try changing to Text and "deleting" the ghost values, but no change was recognized when I tried publishing to Dataverse.  Thanks for the suggestion anyways.

[cchannon]

well, datetimes are nullable in Dataverse, so where there is a will, there is a way. I would try actually putting in "null" to see if that does it. If not, I would pick some arbirtrary but unique date value, like January 22, 1908, then write a Flow that runs on Create of these records and if the date is Jan 22, 1908, sets it to null.

[EricRegnier]

Hi @Microbes, there a several methods to edit dates in Excel. Would it be possible to share how you're doing it include the date formats in Excel? A screenshot would be helpful, cheers! 

[Microbes]

@EricRegnier, What I am doing (or attempting to do) is delete column data from Dataverse table.  The column in Dataverse is formatted as Date-Only.  I am using "Edit in Excel" from Data drop down in Table ribbon:

Once table is opened for editing in Excel I am simply selecting all rows with dates in target column (column format in Excel is "Custom") and deleting. However, when changes are published back to Dataverse table I get this result:

[cchannon · Accepted solution]

If all you need to do is clear out these dates, then we can skip Excel entirely here. Just write a Power Automate Flow on a Manual trigger to set those dates to null, then in Dataverse, select all your rows, click Flow and select the flow you made.

[EricRegnier]

I'm a little confused, are you trying to backup the dates before physically deleting the date-only column because you want to create a date time column instead? Or you just want to clear the value within that existing column? As @cchannon said, you can have a cloud flow to clear, but the easiest method to clear with directly in a model-drvien app with bulk edit or "open in excel online", or just the Power Apps Excel Add-in.

Hope this helps!