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'Create a task' does not accept null or empty string in date fields

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Posted on by PresidentWillem

I am using 'Create a task' flowstep to generate tasks in a Microsoft Planner. But sometimes I do not want to enter a date value for the start or end date. It depends on a variable being entered or not. I use the following expression:

if(empty(variables('StartTime')),null,variables('StartTime'))

It returns a 400 error, bad request, stating that it was impossible to convert null to a datetime, which is correct. But I do not want to enter anything at all. I've also tried the following:

if(empty(variables('StartTime')),'',variables('StartTime'))

Same result, only this time it couldnt convert the empty string. Funny thing is, when I do not enter anything at all, it seems to be fine.

How do I go about making these datefields variably entered or left empty?

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Hardesh15 7,087 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@PresidentWillem
May i know how you add Date & time filed in a variable. Please share screen.
Thanks
Hardesh

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v-litu-msft on at

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Hi @PresidentWillem,

Yes, if there are some expressions in the StartDate field of Create a task action, there should contain a valid date, or it will report an error.

As a workaround, you could create a condition action to determine the startdate variable whether empty, if it is empty, go to the branch that create task action which startdate filed leave empty, for example:

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
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PresidentWillem 19 on at

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Thanks for your answer, although this does not seem like a good enough solution.
Because next up is EndDate, so then you would have to make 2 additional conditions within your given solution. I mean, that would probably work, but that can't be the right way to approach a simple problem like this, right?

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v-litu-msft on at

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Hi @PresidentWillem,

Yes, it is a workaround that not make users confused through it is a little complex.

There has a another way, if the StartTime is empty, set the time to a invalid time:

if(empty(variables('StartTime')),'1900-01-01',variables('StartTime'))

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
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PresidentWillem 19 on at

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I have checked your solution but it results in the following error:

Schema validation has failed. Validation for field 'StartDate', on entity 'Task' has failed: The value must be between 1/1/1984 11:00:00 AM +00:00 and 12/31/2149 11:00:00 AM +00:00 inclusive.
Validation for field 'DueDate', on entity 'Task' has failed: The value must be between 1/1/1984 11:00:00 AM +00:00 and 12/31/2149 11:00:00 AM +00:00 inclusive.

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v-litu-msft on at

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Hi @PresidentWillem,

Ok, so the min time is 1/1/1984 11:00:00 AM +00:00, you could use this timestamp instead of 1900/01/01.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

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