Filter SharePoint list items without a date in Power Automate

So you have a list and that list has a date field. Now you only want to get the items that have a date set and filter out the items without a date.

SharePoint date field

This problem could for example appear in tasks lists where some tasks have a due date set.

In my example, the SharePoint date field in a list can be empty. My first date is on 23 March. The second date is on the 25th and my 3rd date is just empty.

Using a filter Query using a null expression

Now we could use the null value expression like this:

But when you run this flow we will see the following error:

The expression “Date ne” is not valid. Creating query failed.

Using a null value again to filter items without a date

There is however a way that we can make filtering without a date work.

Date ne null as a Filter query expression does work?

Why?

Well the null expression will resolve as nothing and therefore the Date ne is being past to the underlying SharePoint API.

When we use Date ne null we will send exactly that to the filter expression used by the SharePoint REST API and the null value is now used to filter against.