Power Automate examples

Power Automate expressions examples for dates, nulls, and arrays

Common Power Automate expression examples for formatDateTime, coalesce, trigger outputs, arrays, and email-safe values.

Power Automate expressions examplesformatDateTimecoalesce Power Automate

When to use this

Good expressions make flows shorter, clearer, and easier to support when a field is blank or a date needs user-friendly formatting.

Implementation steps

Normalize optional values before they reach emails or approvals.
Use Compose actions for expressions reused more than once.
Format dates for display but keep stored dates as dates.
Name expression actions by the value they produce.

Starter example

Formula / code

coalesce(triggerOutputs()?['body/ReviewerNotes'], 'No reviewer notes were entered.')
formatDateTime(triggerOutputs()?['body/DueDate'], 'MMM d, yyyy')
join(body('Select_-_approver_emails'), ';')

FAQ

Can I copy this example directly?

Use it as a starting point, then adjust data source names, column names, permissions, and validation for your tenant.

Should this be tested before production?

Yes. Test with realistic records, non-admin users, edge cases, and expected data volume before release.

Common mistakes

Assuming every dynamic field has a value.
Putting long expressions directly inside email bodies.
Comparing formatted date strings instead of date values.
Leaving Compose actions with default names.