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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Format multiple dates ...
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Format multiple dates in MS Forms flow

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Posted on by 4

Hi,

 

I've created a form which asks users for the date required, OR the date from and to (so total of 3 dates in the form).

 

I've set up a flow to send an e-mail when a form is submitted, but the dates are backwards (yyyy-MM-dd). I followed steps I found here on the community to format one of the dates using initialize and set variable, but I can't work out how I can do this for all three dates.

 

Here are the steps I used to get the first date formatted correctly into dd-MM-yyyy.

 

Everettp100_0-1664787140645.png

Everettp100_1-1664787192560.png

 

 

How do I get the other two dates (highlighted) into dd-MM-yyyy format please?

Everettp100_2-1664787238080.png

 

I tried just lining them up under the set variable value but that stopped the entire flow working.

I also tried this, which I found under another question asked in the forum (from @Rilsina)

 

1) Initialize a variable of type Object.

2) To populate the variable, use action: Append to Array.

3) In Append to Array- value will be the Json format like:

{

"Question1":"Input Dynamic Content Question1",

"Question2":"Input Dynamic Content Question1"

}

 

But the flow would *not* let me select variable type Object if I used action Append to Array. The only option that I could then select would be Array but I tried that and again the entire flow didn't work.

 

I've spent days trying to work this out, any help is immensely appreciated.

 

Thank you, 

Poppy

 

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  • RobElliott Profile Picture
    10,529 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

    @Everettp100  your logic is not correct here, as you've done it the email still has the 2 dates from the form, you need to have a variable for each of the dates and use the output of each one for the appropriate question.

     

    So you need a variable for "date required meals from" with the value field with a FormatDateTime expression.

    You need another one for "date required meals to" with the value field with a FormatDateTime expression.

     

    You can get rid of the set variable it's not doing anything.

     

    Then you use the output for each of the variables in your email in the appropriate place.

     

    Alternatively have a compose action for each of the dates and use a formatDateTime expression in each one.

     

    Alternatively use a Format Time Zone action for each of the dates.

     

     

  • RobElliott Profile Picture
    10,529 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

    An example of what I mean:

     

    multiDateVariables.PNG

     

    Rob
    Los Gallardos
    If I've answered your question or solved your problem, please mark this question as answered. This helps others who have the same question find a solution quickly via the forum search. If you liked my response, please consider giving it a thumbs up. Thanks.

  • Everettp100 Profile Picture
    4 on at

    Hi,

     

    Firstly thank you so much for answering.

     

    That's right, at the moment I only have one out of the three dates formatted as I couldn't work out how to do all three 😞

     

    I tried to create parallel branches to then set a variable for each date but it would only let me do two maximum.

     

    Do you know how I do the compose action or format time zone action?

     

    I'm completely new to this and just learning from what I read on these forums. 

     

    Thank you again for responding.

  • RobElliott Profile Picture
    10,529 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

    Just look at the image in my previous post and where I have 2 variables you need 3 variables (or 3 compose actions, the effect is exactly the same). You defiintely don't need parallel branches.

     

    Rob
    Los Gallardos

  • Everettp100 Profile Picture
    4 on at

    Thank you, apologies I missed the photo examples the first time around.

     

    So I thought I'd done this right, but I'm getting an error message when I try to save - can you see where I've gone wrong?

     

    Everettp100_0-1664810870920.png

     

    Everettp100_1-1664810916953.png

     

     

     

  • RobElliott Profile Picture
    10,529 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

    @Everettp100 you seem to have 3 variables where only 2 are required. You have a variable for Date Requiredl, then one for Date from then one for Date to. Surely you just need the date from and date to variables?! What's the date required variable doing? What are the expressions  in your initialize variable actions? There might be an error somewhere in there.

     

    Rob
    Los Gallardos

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