Flow - Calculate Date Diference

[Mdorrani]

Definition :- ticks(timestamp: string) - Returns the number of ticks (100 nanoseconds interval) since 1 Jan 1601  00:00:00 UT

Scenario :-

SharePoint list contains following columns:-

Title (Single Line of Text)

Contract Executed Date (Date)

 MS Flow :-

Get items from list

Run Select data operation to calculate number of days between Today's date and the Contract Executed Date

The expression for Days Since Contract Executed :-

div(sub(ticks(formatDateTime(utcNow(),'yyyy-MM-dd')),ticks(item()?['ContractExecutedDate'])),864000000000)

ticks(formatDateTime(utcNow(),'yyyy-MM-dd') - Number of Ticks since 1 Jan 1601 and Today's Date

ticks(item()?['ContractExecutedDate']) - Number of Ticks since 1 Jan 1601 and Contract Executed date

sub - subtracting the number of ticks

div - divide the result from 864000000000 (conversion from nanoseconds to days)

Output of Select when Flow runs :-

Another use case would be to do date comparisons using Ticks

Filter all contracts which have Contract executed date in the last week

ticks(item()?['ContractExecutedDate']) - Number of Ticks since 1 Jan 1601 and Contract Executed date

ticks(formatDateTime(adddays( utcNow(),-7),'yyyy-MM-dd')) - Number of Ticks since 1 Jan 1601 and [Today's Date - 7 ] (in the last week)

utcNow() - current date and time

adddays( utcNow(),-7) - adds (-7) days to todays date 

formatDateTime(adddays( utcNow(),-7),'yyyy-MM-dd') - format the date time to date 'yyyy-MM-dd'

Check if ticks - Contract Executed date is greater than the ticks  - since Last week

Data in Contracts List :-

Flow - Filter using ticks expression

Flow - Select the filtered operation result and get Tile of contract

Result of Flow run for Select -

Only "Contract 2" is returned as it has Contract Executed Date since last week

Thanks for reading !!!

[Anonymous]

Hi Mdorrani,

Maybe you can help me with this:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Copy-item-from-sharepoint-list-if-item-is-created...

I build the "Select" part of the flow based on this article, but i can't seem to use the output it gives me?

[jvargas]

For me, worked this way:

add(mul(div(Sub(ticks(utcNow()),ticks(item()?['Estimated_x0020_Delivery_x0020_D'])),864000000000),-1),1)

[arctirux]

Hi Guys,

I hope this helps, this is how I was able to find a solution concerning this. I defined a variable which checks how many minutes have elapsed since the record was last updated if the value is greater than 1 minute (or 5, depending on what you want), then the flow is allowed to proceed (the part that updates an item), this will stop the loop.

div(sub(ticks(utcNow()),ticks(triggerBody()?['Modified'])),600000000)

[jbrines]

@Mdorrani 

Great post, I wonder if you could help with this issue. Your way seems to have less steps.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Build-a-Flow-based-on-time-passed-and-Choice-Fiel...

[RobH1]

This solution is working great for me however does it take leap years into account?  When I've tried this some of the calculations are 1 day off and it appears the ones with a day missing are where there is a leap year between today and the end date?  I'm doing the sum the other way round from the example so End Date - Today.  Thanks

[DragonLord]

a DateDiff function would be so much easier..

[MikeDemster]

DateDiff is available in Power Apps, which means it should be in PowerFX, so hopefully just a matter of time to get it into Power Automate.

That said, for a scenario where  you are using the SharePoint -> Get Items, and you need to filter on something past due (lets say 2 or more days past due) based on a date field in the SharePoint list, this ODATA filter worked for me:

myDueDateColumn le '<the expression below>'

Expression: formatDateTime(addDays(utcNow(),-2),'yyyy-MM-dd')

[AZ-MOSS-Bear]

Writing the expressions is a science.  Is there an expression helping tool.  We have just spent hours try to debug this 

div(div(mul(sub(ticks(item()?['responseDate'])!ticks(item()['requestDate'])/(100,100000000],60)

@Mdorrani By the way I love your videos and am trying to keep up!  

[asd2525]

@AZ-MOSS-Bear 

The best way I have debugged things like that is to make a series of compose statements where each compose uses the output from the previous and does one action of the formula. So the first compose would have the ticks expression, then, the second would have the sub expression, then mul....etc. 

[AZ-MOSS-Bear]

Thank You

[wskinnermctc]

I have made a post that thoroughly shows the use of the expression dateDifference() as well as how to use the ticks() expression to find the difference between two datetimes.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Power-Automate/Using-the-dateDifference-expression-or-ti... 

[AnnetteM]

I am trying to get the time difference between the start and wait for approval's request date and response date. The expression listed above appears to be different than what is in @Mdorrani  YouTube video "SharePoint Approval Timeline..." I tried importing the github flow, but it errors out. Any help would be appreciated.

[wskinnermctc]

@AnnetteM It looks like the difference in the video you watched is that the expression he used did an extra conversion. I think he was like using an expression to get hours and then used the same one to get minutes but just added an additional divide by 60. I'm not exactly sure, but the examples above should get the result you want.

You can look at my post here that shows about time calculation.

I would recommend you go into the Get Help With Power Automate - Building Flows and make a new post asking how to get the time difference in approvals. Title your post something like "Help to Get Time Difference for Approval Request and Response" or similar.

Write your question, give a couple of screenshots of your flow, and I can almost guarantee someone will answer your exact question shortly. It might be difficult for you to get flow specific help here on an older blog post comments.

[AnnetteM]

Thanks! I finally figured it out!

div(div(mul(sub(ticks(item()?['responseDate']),ticks(item()?['requestDate'])),100),1000000000),60)