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Why is SharePoint 'Update Item' different between two flows?

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Posted on by ChrisRomer

I've got a number of flows that update a SharePoint list and recently added a date field to the mix. Sometimes the variable I pass to this date field in the Update Item action has a NULL value. Three jobs have no issue with this. I have a job to fix errors on the same list. It also uses Update Item, and crashes with the typical error "... is required to be of type 'String/date'. The runtime value '""' to be converted doesn't have the expected format 'String/date'."

If I look at the output for the flows that are working, they seem to ignore the null field.

Stranger, I used Peek Code to view both Update Items in Edit (not flow run output), and the underlying code is different. I appear to have two different Update Item (PatchItem) actions.

The Peek Code on the working one starts out:

{
 "inputs": {
 "host": {
 "connection": {
 "name": "@json(decodeBase64(triggerOutputs().headers['X-MS-APIM-Tokens']))['$connections']['shared_sharepointonline']['connectionId']"
 }
 },
 "method": "patch",
 "body": {

The Peek Code on the broken one starts out:

{
 "inputs": {
 "host": {
 "connectionName": "shared_sharepointonline",
 "operationId": "PatchItem",
 "apiId": "/providers/Microsoft.PowerApps/apis/shared_sharepointonline"
 },
 "parameters": {

Why did this happen, and how do I specify the version that works?

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ChrisRomer 15 on at

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Re: Why is SharePoint 'Update Item' different between two flows? UPDATE: (100% certain there are 2 versions of 'Update Item')

I ran across this issue again on flows with null dates, and it was driving me crazy. I tried to copy the 'Update Item' that ignores nulls, but it disables the paste because it 'doesn't match the current flow schema'.

Fine, I started a new Flow with the working Update Item and copied over the rest of my flow. Here they are side by side. Same flow except the 'Update Item'.

Left flow uses"operationId": "PatchItem" and fails on null
Right flow use"method": "patch" and ignores null dates
ChrisRomer 15 on at

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Re: Why is SharePoint 'Update Item' different between two flows?

I do use a condition because I also am using formatDateTime, and that will error out on NULL. My point is that both the populated date and NULL variables will run through Update Item in those flows (it's the same variable passed to Update Item, which is not part of the branch logic). If I look at output, the successful flow is simply ignoring the NULL. In my other flow, which is the same list and Update Item, it will crash on NULL.

The code I shared is 'Peek Code' from Edit, not copied from job run output. The action doesn't know what value the variable will hold other than it will be a String.

Here is output. See SCMCERTDATE is blank, and is magically not used in the Output. No error.
Hardesh15 7,087 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Re: Why is SharePoint 'Update Item' different between two flows?

@ChrisRomer

You have to use condition which will check whether you date column has value or not. Use one condition action with following logic.

Date column is not equal to null.

When this column has value update your item.

Difference in update peak code is due to one which has value and return result and which does not have value so it is sending you error message from api.

Thanks.

Hardesh