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Session Id : BKFNxr7ToeYVzkwGAZQmZ2
Power Automate - Building Flows
Answered

Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

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Posted on 23 Jan 2018 12:24:37 by 51

Hi All, 

 

I am looking for an expression much like 'utcNow()' that gives today's date as an output. That way I can compare it to the 'Due Date' column and send an  email when a task is (over)due. 

 

I Excel you can use the formula '=TODAY()' to do that, but that doesn't seem to work in flow. 

Does a similar expression exist in Microsoft Flow?

 

Best regards, 

AVH

  • Chriddle Profile Picture
    7,685 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 07 May 2024 at 08:18:33
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    The function is called utcNow() 😉

  • chtryan Profile Picture
    2 on 07 May 2024 at 06:20:48
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    If i have timezone set to Australia / Melbourne and use the UTC function, will it pull from Melbourne or UTC time? 

  • ninjaryder1st Profile Picture
    232 on 18 Feb 2022 at 17:27:38
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    Hi Alice,

     

    This is very good information and cool... but how does Powerautomate know to compose/calculate that date format from nothing?   Where is the source date?   I'm trying to write a flow from a trigger with trigger condition "when item is modified", to create a new file and copy some things from the former copied file.. but I want a new date instead of the former list item date to transfer over.     The expression: 

    formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

    is helpful but I'm not sure how SP or PA knows to compose this from the source date/date file is copied.    

  • temoneyn Profile Picture
    2 on 01 May 2020 at 18:44:44
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    How can I have the date to come out the correct way MM.DD.YYYY as this formula is displaying the date YYYY.MM.DD, no matter how the expression is entered. This is the expression I have entered in my flow.

    formatDateTime(utcNow(),'MM-dd-yyyy') 

     
     
  • ClaireAllen Profile Picture
    762 on 01 Nov 2019 at 10:46:12
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    Hello @v-yuazh-msft ,

     

    I have a similar question,

     

    I am creating a workflow where I have a document Library and when a document is modified I want a workflow to run on a calculated column which is =modified+365

     

    I've tried the solutions mentioned, but my workflow did not work (I did changed the date to only 2 days for testing purpose)

     

    I have a condition in the workflow, see image

    msworkflow.JPG

     

    Would you be able to advise where I went wrong,

     

    Thank you

     

    Claire Allen

  • mleon Profile Picture
    on 24 May 2019 at 14:31:21
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?
    here you go 🙂
     
    formatDateTime(addDays(utcNow(), -30), 'MM/dd/yyyy')
  • SSafeAdmin Profile Picture
    4 on 12 Jun 2018 at 23:30:15
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    Hi there!

    Thanks for your explanation - the easiest one I have found so far on this!

    What if I wanted to the action to occur if the duedate value was today-30 days?  

     

    Thanks so much

    Shannon

  • AVH Profile Picture
    51 on 31 Jan 2018 at 08:26:57
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    @v-yuazh-msft,

     

    Got it!

     

    Thank you very much for your input!

  • Verified answer
    v-yuazh-msft Profile Picture
    on 24 Jan 2018 at 12:15:20
    Re: Is there an expression in Flow like =TODAY() in Excel that gives today's date as output?

    Hi @ AVH,

    Thank you for posting.

    What is format of “Due Data” in your column?

    You could add a “Compose” action and take a try to use expression below:

    Expression:

    formatDateTime(utcNow(),'yyyy-MM-dd')

    Use this Expression would return a data like 2018-01-24

     

     

    Image reference:

     1.jpg

     

    2.png

     

     

    More details about the Workflow Definition Language, please check the link below:

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/logic-apps-workflow-definition-language

     

     

    I have a sharepoint list and the list have a Date type due data field.

     3.png

    I have made a flow to compare the due data with the date now. please refer to screenshots below:

    4.png

     

    The expression of first value as below:

    formatDateTime(triggerBody()?['duedate'],'yyyy-MM-dd')

     

    The expression of second value as below:

    formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

     

     

    The “Condition ” is used to compare the due data with the date now. The due data and the date now could be format to a same type.

    When an item is create,the flow run successfully as below:

     

     5.png

     

    I hope my clarification has been helpful. 

    Please feel free to contact us if you have any other questions.


    Regards,
    Alice Zhang

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