How to Get Current Date in Power Automate

Are you confused about how to get current date in Power Automate? Then this Power Automate tutorial will help you how to get today’s date value in Power Automate.

In addition, we will also see what are the different ways that we can get today’s date value and we will also use the set variable action to display the retrieved current date value in Power Automate. Moreover, we will also cover below topics:

• Power Automate Set Variable to Current Date
• Power Automate Set Variable to today’s Date
• Power Automate Get Today’s Date with the Current Time Action (Built-in action)
• How to get Today’s Date with the UTCNOW Function (Expression) in Power Automate

Also, Read: How to Use Power Automate Delay Action

Get Current Date in Power Automate

Here, we will see how to get the current date value in Power Automate.

In this example, we will get the current date using the addDays function and then we will display the retrieved current date value using the set variable action in the Power Automate flow.

In Power Automate, click on the Create -> Instant cloud flow option. Then enter the flow name choose the trigger as the Manually triggered Flow, then click on the create option.

• Select Initialize variable action, then set the variable name and variable type as a string. Because there is no variable type called Date.
• In the value field, add the below formula which returns the previous date value. (ie 29-05-2023). Click the ok or update button.

addDays(utcNow(),-1)

Where,

• addDays = function name
• utcNow() = returns current days value
• -1 = Parameter value (returns previous date value)

• Now click on the Next step and select the Set variable action, then select the variable name and add the below expression, which will return the Today’s date value. ( ie, today’s date: 30-05-2023)
• Click the ok or update button.

addDays(utcNow(),0)

Where,

• addDays = function name
• utcNow() = returns current days value
• 0 = Parameter value (returns current date value)

Now click on Save and run the Flow to view the set variable value.

This is how to get the current date value in Power Automate.

Check out: How to Initialize String Variable in Power Automate

Power Automate Set Variable to Current Date

Let us see how we can set a variable to the current date in the Power Automate flow.

In this example, we will see another way to set the current date using the utcnow() function in the Power Automate flow.

In Power Automate, click on the create-> instant cloud flow option by selecting the trigger as the Manually triggered Flow, then click on the create option.

• Select Initialize variable action, then set the variable name and variable type as a string.
• In the value field, add the below formula which returns the previous date value. Click the ok or update button.

addDays(utcNow(),-1)

• Now click on the Next step and select the Set variable action, then select the variable name and add the below expression, which will return the Today’s date value. ( ie, today’s date: 30-05-2023).
• Click the ok or update button.

utcNow()

Where,
utcNow() returns the current date and time in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC).

Now click on Save and run the Flow to view the set variable value.

This is how to set a variable to the current date in the Power Automate flow.

Read: How to Initialize Boolean Variable in Power Automate

Power Automate Set Variable to today’s Date

Here we will see how to set the variable to today’s date in Power Automate,

In this example, we will see another way to set today’s date using the utcnow() function inside the format DateTime function with the format ‘yyyy-MM-dd’.
Formula

• In Power Automate, click on the create-> instant cloud flow option by selecting the trigger as the Manually triggered Flow, then click on the create option.
• Select Initialize variable action, then set the variable name and variable type as a string.
• In the value field, add the below formula which returns the previous date value. Click the ok or update button.

addDays(utcNow(),-1)

• Now click on the Next step and select the Set variable action, then select the variable name and add the below expression, which will return the Today’s date value. ( ie, today’s date: 30-05-2023).

formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'dd-MM-yyyy')

Where,

1. formatDateTime formats the Date value. By default, the date value displays the date in YYYY-MM-DD format. Click the ok or update button.
2. utcNow() returns the current date and time in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC).

• Now click on Save and run the Flow to view the set variable date value with the date format mentioned.

This is how to set the variable to today’s date in Power Automate flow.

Power Automate Get Today’s Date with the Current Time Action (Built-in action)

Now, we will create a flow to get the current date by using the current time action in the Power Automate flow.

Scenario:

The flow triggers manually and gets the current date value by using the Current Date action, we will display the result in the compose action.

To achieve this, Follow the below steps:

Step-1:

• Initially, log in to Power Automate flow using the Microsoft credentials, and select +Create -> instant cloud flow.
• Enter the flow, choose the triggers as Manually trigger a flow,, and click the create option.

Step-2:

• Select the + new step and choose the Current Time action. No additional information is required for this step. It returns the date and time value and we can able to use the output value in subsequent steps.

Step-3:

• Save and run the flow by selecting the Run flow option. We can see the output value as highlighted below, whereas today’s date.

This is how to get the current date by using the current time action in the Power Automate flow.

Also, Check How to Convert time zone in Power Automate

Power Automate Get Today’s Date with the utcNow() Function (Expression)

Using the Power Automate flow expression, let us create a flow to get today’s date.

Scenario:

The flow triggers manually, gets today’s date value by using the utcNow() function, and displays the result value in the compose action.

To achieve this, Follow the below steps:

Step-1:

• Create an instant cloud flow to trigger the flow manually. Select + new step and add a compose data operation, and under the expression tab, pass the below expression:

utcNow()

Step-2:

• Save and run the flow by selecting the Run flow option. We can see the output value as highlighted below whereas today’s date is 11/08/2022.

This is how to get today’s date by using the expression in the Power Automate flow.

Also, you may like some more Power Automate and SharePoint tutorials:

• How to Check If a Date is Blank in Power Automate?
• Power Automate Set Variable Action [With Examples]
• How to Initialize Array Variable in Power Automate
• How to Initialize Object Variable in Power Automate
• How to Set Alerts in a SharePoint document library

In this Power Automate tutorial, we learned how to get today’s date value in Power Automate. In addition, we also saw the different ways we can get today’s date value. Moreover, we also covered below topics:

• Power Automate Set Variable Date
• Power Automate Set Variable to Current Date
• Power Automate Set Variable to today’s Date
• Power Automate Get Today’s Date with the Current Time Action (Built-in action)
• How to get Today’s Date with the UTCNOW Function (Expression) in Power Automate