This feature “Format data by examples” will kill one of my most popular posts! How to format dates using formatDateTime.
Using the Format data by example
Although this feature is easy to use, it is worth writing a quick blog post about this.
You can find this new feature in the expression editor. It has even been given a blue icon to jump out at you.
Just click on it and then you will see a pane sliding in where you can supply an exmple input value. In my case I put the current date and time in there as it is returned by the UTCNow function or any other date field in Power Automate.
Then you select the format that you want from a dropdown and Power Automate will do the rest for you!
Well that was easy!
Ok, that was the obvious formatting option.
But how about the following example. splitting an email address and taking different parts of it.
When you select my first name you will be given an expression to split and take the first element.
Ok, this new feature may not help the seasoned developer but it is definitely a game changer for new Power Automate developer.
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Pieter Veenstra
Is your business still running on paper trails, sprawling Excel files, or ageing Access databases? There's a better way — and I can show you exactly what it looks like. I'm the Technical Director of Vantage 365, a Microsoft solutions consultancy working with clients across the UK, the Netherlands, and worldwide. For over 30 years I've been turning messy, manual business processes into clean, automated systems that save time, reduce errors, and give teams the visibility they need to make better decisions. SharePains is not just any blog run by a Microsoft MVP. Have you ever used Try-Catch in Power Automate? The original post about Try-Catch in Power Automate can still be found on this site, https://sharepains.com/2018/02/07/try-catch-finally-in-power-automate-flow/ Or have you ever used the Pieter’s method to avoid variables and speed up your flows? https://sharepains.com/2020/03/11/pieters-method-for-advanced-in-flows/ You can contact me using contact@sharepains.com