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How to customize or format Date and Time values in a flow

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This article provides steps to customize or format Date and Time values in a flow.

Applies to:   Power Automate
Original KB number:   4534778

Scenario

When working with date and time values (for example, DateTime values) in flow, they may look like:

  • 2019-12-06T22:47:23.0798367Z
  • 2009-06-15T13:45:30Z

You may format these values to look like:

  • 6/15/2009 1:45 PM
  • Monday, June 15, 2009

This is done by using Date and Time Format Strings passed to the formatDateTime() function.

Format strings

A standard format string is a single character (for example, 'd', 'g', 'G', this is case-sensitive) that corresponds to a specific pattern.

For example, the format string 'g' corresponds to the General date/time pattern (short time):

  • formatDateTime('2009-06-15T13:45:30', 'g') -> 6/15/2009 1:45 PM

A custom format string is any string with more than one character (for example, 'M/dd/yyyy h:mm tt') that can control the visibility, positioning, precision of the month, day, hour, second etc. of the DateTime value.

For example, the format string 'M/dd/yyyy h:mm tt' represents the same pattern as the standard format string 'g' as described above:

  • formatDateTime('2009-06-15T13:45:30', 'M/dd/yyyy h:mm tt') -> 6/15/2009 1:45 PM

For more information about available standard format patterns and how to construct a custom format string, see the Resources section in this article.

Example steps

  1. Select the input field where you want the formatted DateTime value.

  2. Go to the expression editor (go to Add dynamic content > select the Expression tab).

  3. Type formatDateTime() (or look under Date and time functions).

  4. Provide the value to be formatted and surrounded by single quotes. Dynamic content can be used, but shouldn't be surrounded by single quotes.

  5. Provide the format string (surrounded by single quotes).

  6. The full expression should look like the following examples:

    • formatDateTime('<your-value>', 'dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm tt')

    • formatDateTime(<dynamic-content>, 'dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm tt')

  7. Select Ok.

Resources