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Create Calendar event over multiple days between set times?

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Posted on by 19Flash92

Hello,
Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.
So essentially I have a Microsoft form that our project managers use to schedule events that can span over several days.
For examples in the photo i'd want the event to start 13/09/2022 at 23:00 and finish on 15/09/2022 at 06:00 but id want an event for each day so 13/09/2022 11pm - 14/09/2022 6am and 14/09/2022 11pm - 15/09/2022
However when I create the calendar events it will schedule the event for the whole day between them dates, is there anyway to get power automate to create an event for each day between the specific time period?

The dates and times are captured in an MS form as you can see on the last photo.

Any help greatly appreciated 🙂

Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.03.55.png Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.04.04.png Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.25.21.png Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 12.27.41.png

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DamoBird365 8,942 Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @19Flash92

Using your example, I have placed the start and end dates into a compose.

I have then calculated the number of days between both dates using the following:

div(sub(ticks(formatDateTime(outputs('ComposeEnd'),'yyyy-MM-dd')),ticks(formatdatetime(outputs('ComposeStart'),'yyyy-MM-dd'))),864000000000)

Note I have specified the datetime format because otherwise we will wrongly calculate the difference based on TIME also.

Then I used the subtract from time action to remove the number of days calculated above from the end date (to get the start date with the end time, and then I add on 1 day. I.e. the first day end date/time.

Finally, use a select and range() as input, which starts at 0 and creates an array of days to add i.e. [0,1] we can add this number onto the start date and the firstenddate (as calculated).

The end result is an array of start/end dates that you can use as input to an apply to each and insert item()?['start'] and item()?['end'] into your create event action.

If you're new to arrays, try taking a look and playing along with the following video of challenges https://youtu.be/G3Q1WuZTWuY

Cheers
Damien

Please take a look and subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more Power Platform ideas and concepts. Thanks

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19Flash92 45 on at

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Hello Damien,

Really appreciate the detailed reply.

I've tried to follow the steps and I'm now running into this error:

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19Flash92 45 on at

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Most likely I have done something wrong on a previous step as here are the outputs:

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DamoBird365 8,942 Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @19Flash92

It's my bad, the expression for first end date should be adddays(body('Subtract_from_time'),1) - I don't know how I managed to copy that into the screenshot wrong. Hopefully that sorts you.

Damien

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19Flash92 45 on at

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Perfect working now, I've watched your array video and subscribed but I'm still lost on how I convert them Arrays into multiple calendar events.

If your able to help me with the last part I'll tip you with a coffee/beer 😄

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19Flash92 45 on at

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Also I tested this again but this time using 2 times over 5 days that don't go into separate days and it's basically created the out put below:

Inputs I used were:

Maybe I need to change something on my form to capture more data?

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DamoBird365 8,942 Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @19Flash92

To create the events, you would add an apply to each, insert the select as input and the add expressions item()?['start'] and item()?['end'].

Regarding your question about the 7th 12:00 to 10th 17:00, it's giving you

7th - 8th

8th - 9th

9th - 10th

What would you be expecting?

Damien

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19Flash92 45 on at

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Hello Damien,

Thanks for the reply.

I'd expect:
7th - 7th
8th - 8th
9th - 9th
10th - 10th

As the times don't overlap a day, so each event will take place on the same between 12:00 - 17:00.

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DamoBird365 8,942 Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @19Flash92

I see what you mean. So this will require some additional logic.

Based on 7th 12:00 to 10th 17:00

if(less(body('Subtract_from_time'),parsedatetime(outputs('ComposeStart'))),1,0)

If the subtract from time (7th 17:00) is less than the start time (7th 12:00), we add 1 day to the first end date, else 0. Therefore the end date 7th 17:00 + 0 in this case. I have added a compose to make this calculation and updated the composefirstenddate to adddays(body('Subtract_from_time'),outputs('ComposeTimeCheck')).

if(less(body('Subtract_from_time'), parsedatetime(outputs('ComposeStart'))),0,1)

If the subtract from time (7th 17:00) is less than the start time (7th 12:00), we add 0 days to the range or date difference, otherwise in this case, we add on 1. I have added a compose for this calculation of logic too and I have updated the range to

range(0,add(outputs('ComposeDifferenceDays'),outputs('ComposeTimeCheckRange')))

Based on testing....

returns:

and...

returns:

I tested on matching times too and you would get three events based on both times being the same.

Please let me know if that works for you. I was trying to think of more simple logic, but not sure how.

Damien

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19Flash92 45 on at

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I’ll try this for sure, thanks for all the help so far.

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