Power Automate Fundamentals # 5: Usage of formatDateTime Function in Power Automate

Introduction:

In Power Automate, most of the common scenario is to format Date and Time based on the customer requirement, in Power Automate it can be achieved easily using formatDateTime Function.

Step 1:

Login to the required Power Apps environment using URL make.powerapps.com by providing user name and password and click on Flows on the left hand side as shown in the below figure.

Step 2:

After Step 1,  Click on New Flow and select instant cloud flow and provide the trigger as Manually trigger a flow and click on Create as shown in the below figure.

Step 3:

After Step 2, name the flow as formatDateTime to hold Today’s date string value we must click on + New Step and under Choose an operation and in text box type Initialize Variable and select Initialize variable and provide the following

step name as Initialize variable - Today's Date

Name: Date

Type: String

Value: 

utcNow()

  as shown in the below figure.

Step 4:

After Step 3,  in order to get Format Date time in Short Date format we have to use d with (en-US) take Compose Operation and provide

step name as Compose - Format Date Time - Short Date with 'd' Example(en-US) and

Inputs : 

formatDateTime(variables('Date'), 'd')

And click on ok/update as shown in the below figure.

Step 5:

After Step 4, to get Format Date time in Short Date format with (en-GB) take Compose Operation and provide

step name as Compose - Format Date Time - Short Date Example (en-GB)

and

Inputs: 

formatDateTime(variables('Date'),'dd/MM/yyyy')

And click on ok/update as shown in the below figure.

Step 6:

After Step 5, to get Format Date Time - Long Date Example (en-US) take Compose Operation and provide

step name as Compose - Format Date Time - Long Date Example (en-US)

and

Inputs: 

formatDateTime(variables('Date'),'dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy')

And click on ok/update as shown in the below figure.

Step 7:

After Step 6, to get Compose - Format Date Time - Long Date Abbreviated (US) take Compose Operation and provide

step name as Compose - Format Date Time - Long Date Abbreviated (US)

and

Inputs: 

formatDateTime(variables('Date'),'ddd, MMM dd, yyyy')

And click on ok/update as shown in the below figure.

Step 8:

After Step 7, to get Compose - Format Date And Time - To show Time Hour:Minute:Seconds take Compose Operation and provide

step name as Compose - Format Date And Time - To show Time Hour:Minute:Seconds

and

Inputs: 

formatDateTime(variables('Date'),'hh:mm:ss tt')

And click on ok/update as shown in the below figure.

Note:

1. Make sure to save and run the flow whenever you try expressions.
2. MS documentation is found at here

Conclusion: In this way one can easily work on different format date time in few minutes and use it for required scenarios.