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Power Automate - Building Flows
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How to update a choice column based on whether another column is populated or not

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Posted on by 50

Hello, I am setting up a Microsoft List to keep track of our tenders. The two columns that need to talk to each other are the Bid Status column and the Date Submitted column.

 

When a new item is initially set up, the Date Submitted column is left blank. Once a tender is completed and submitted, we enter a date into the Date Submitted column. Once the Date Submitted column is populated, I would like for the Bid Status choice to change to Submitted.

 

I have set up a flow that kind of works, however it is working too well. It is changing every new list item to Submitted. I suspect this is because I am using the When an item or a file is modified as my trigger because my list has another flow that gives each item an automatic incremental number (which I assume already modifies the list item).

 

I am a complete Newbie to Power Automate, so any help you can give me would be appreciated. Here is the flow as I have it at the moment:

 

Update Bid Status flow 01.jpgUpdate Bid Status flow 02.JPG

 

I feel like it would be easier to just use an If is not null statement, but I don't know how to do that in Power Automate. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

  • Bron Profile Picture
    50 on at
    Re: How to update a choice column based on whether another column is populated or not

    Thanks Tom, that worked perfectly!

  • Verified answer
    tom_riha Profile Picture
    10,127 Most Valuable Professional on at
    Re: How to update a choice column based on whether another column is populated or not

    Hello @Bron ,

    the 'Has Column been changed..' has never value 'null', it can have values 'true' or 'false', depending if the column was modified in the previous version or not. In your case I'd remove the 'Get changes...' action and use just a 'Condition' with conditions

    Date Submitted [is not equal to] null
    and
    Bid status value [is not equal to] Submitted 
    
    Notes:
    null is an expression
    'Date Submitted' and 'Bid status value' are your dynamic contents from the 'When item... is modified' trigger, you need to input them

    That will filter only items where the date is already entered but the status is not yet set to Submitted, and you can update the status there. If date is not entered, or if status is already set to Submitted, it'll go to the 'If no' branch and do nothing.image.png

     

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