Ticks function to find difference in dates

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Posted on by davyjones

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Good day all!

I tried to follow the video that was set here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbqvyjwiX6c

What I wanted to do was schedule a daily flow that would check a SharePoint and a specific column within that SharePoint. This column would have a date on it and I wanted the flow to continue when that date had passed more than 90 days. When that happens, it should send a notification to the person who opened that row.

My flow -

The Variable in question -

This is the error that I am receiving -

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Building flows

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Ed Gonzales 4,531 Most Valuable Professional on at

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@davyjones
Hey there - So, it looks like either one of your rows has a blank/null value in the VR_initiated column, or there is something wrong with the syntax to get that field. Your error is telling you "I expected a string/datetime, but got a null value instead".

If you click on the "Get item" step above your set variable, you can see the output and what the field data looks like.

Let's start there.

-Ed

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davyjones 124 on at

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@edgonzales
That is quite possible as some of the rows dont have anything. Is there a way to make the system skip those or look only for rows that have something in them?

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Ed Gonzales 4,531 Most Valuable Professional on at

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You bet. A couple of options to consider:
After your Get Items step (but before the Apply to Each Loop), add a "Filter Array" using the output of the Get Items step and criteria of not equal to null.
Or (preferred)...In your Get Items step, click on "Show Advanced Options" and add the filter there using the date not equal to null.
Let us know how that works out.
-Ed

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davyjones 124 on at

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@edgonzales

Thank you for that suggestion! I tried your preferred way first, and either I couldnt get the syntax correct, or the system simply did not like it, but it failed on that step. I then tried your 'filter array' suggestion shown here -

And this is where it failed (again) -

Possible I didnt set the 'value' correct?

thank you for all of your help!

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davyjones 124 on at

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@edgonzales

I also tried the below, because I thought that you were saying that I should filter out all of the rows in the particular column. This column that I have filtering is the one that I am using in the variable as well. This column should have a date and is put into the function to add 90 days to the date and come out with a number. I want to filter out the rows in that column where there is NO date. Still didnt work, and got the same error message though:

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Ed Gonzales 4,531 Most Valuable Professional on at

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If you use the filter array method, you'll need to change the apply to each loop to work through the results of the filter array, rather than the list of items from the get items step.

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davyjones 124 on at

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@edgonzales
I went back to your preferred solution. It was indeed the syntax, as the correct way is/was - (name of column ne null) The parenthesis is important, and the word 'null' cannot be capitalized.

It all works now!

Again, thank you for your help

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