🧭 Overview of Date and Time Functions in Power Automate

Power Automate provides many built-in Date and Time expressions using PowerFx-style functions (based on Azure Logic Apps workflow definition language).

All DateTime expressions begin with formatDateTime(), addDays(), utcNow(), etc., and are used in dynamic content or expressions inside flows.

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📅 Commonly Used Date and Time Functions

1. utcNow()

Returns the current date and time in UTC.

• Syntax: utcNow()
• Example Output: 2025-07-22T08:12:34Z

✅ Use this when you need the current time in flows.

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2. addDays()

Adds a number of days to a specified date.

• Syntax: addDays(startDate, numberOfDays, format?)
• Example:

addDays(utcNow(), 5, ‘yyyy-MM-dd’)

Output: 2025-07-27

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3. addHours()

Adds hours to a given date.

• Syntax: addHours(startDate, numberOfHours, format?)
• Example:

addHours(utcNow(), 3)

Output: 2025-07-22T11:12:34Z

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4. addMinutes()

Adds minutes to a given date.

• Syntax: addMinutes(startDate, numberOfMinutes)
• Example:

addMinutes(utcNow(), 15)

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5. subtractDays(), subtractHours(), subtractMinutes()

Subtract time from a date.

• Example:

subtractDays(utcNow(), 7, ‘yyyy-MM-dd’)

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6. formatDateTime()

Formats a given date/time into a string format.

• Syntax: formatDateTime(date, format)
• Examples:

formatDateTime(utcNow(), ‘yyyy-MM-dd’)

formatDateTime(utcNow(), ‘dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm tt’)

formatDateTime(utcNow(), ‘dddd, MMMM dd yyyy’)

Outputs:

• 2025-07-22
• 22/07/2025 02:12 PM
• Tuesday, July 22 2025

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7. convertTimeZone()

Converts a time from one time zone to another.

• Syntax: convertTimeZone(timestamp, sourceTimeZone, destinationTimeZone, format)
• Example:

convertTimeZone(utcNow(), ‘UTC’, ‘India Standard Time’, ‘yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm tt’)

Output: 2025-07-22 01:42 PM

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8. day(), month(), year()

Extracts components of a date.

• Examples:

day(utcNow())     ➜ 22

month(utcNow())   ➜ 7

year(utcNow())    ➜ 2025

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9. dayOfWeek()

Returns the day of the week (0 for Sunday, 6 for Saturday).

• Syntax: dayOfWeek(date)
• Example:

dayOfWeek(utcNow()) ➜ 2  (Tuesday)

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10. ticks()

Returns a long number representing date and time (used for unique ID generation).

• Syntax: ticks(utcNow())

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11. addToTime()

Adds time duration to a date.

• Syntax: addToTime(date, interval, timeUnit)
• Example:

addToTime(utcNow(), 30, ‘Minute’)

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12. startOfDay(), startOfMonth()

Returns beginning of a day or month.

• Examples:

startOfDay(utcNow())

startOfMonth(utcNow())

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13. endOfDay(), endOfMonth()

Returns end of a day or month.

• Examples:

endOfDay(utcNow())

endOfMonth(utcNow())

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14. parseDateTime()

Parses a string into a datetime object.

• Syntax: parseDateTime(’22/07/2025′, ‘dd/MM/yyyy’)

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🛠 Real-life Examples

📌 Get current date in local time zone

convertTimeZone(utcNow(), ‘UTC’, ‘India Standard Time’, ‘yyyy-MM-dd’)

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📌 Add 10 business days to a date (excluding weekends) – Use loop

Loop through days and skip weekends using dayOfWeek() logic.

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📌 Format due date 7 days from now

formatDateTime(addDays(utcNow(), 7), ‘dd-MM-yyyy’)

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📌 Create a timestamp for unique filename

concat(‘Invoice_’, formatDateTime(utcNow(), ‘yyyyMMdd_HHmmss’), ‘.pdf’)

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📌 Calculate age from Date of Birth

div(sub(ticks(utcNow()), ticks(triggerOutputs()?[‘body/DOB’])), 3155695200000000)

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📚 Formatting Reference (Standard Patterns)

Format Token	Description	Example
yyyy	Year	2025
MM	Month (01–12)	07
dd	Day (01–31)	22
HH	Hour (00–23)	14
hh	Hour (01–12)	02
mm	Minute (00–59)	43
tt	AM/PM	PM
dddd	Day name	Tuesday

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✅ Best Practices

• Always use convertTimeZone() to adjust to local time zones.
• For business processes, use startOfDay() and endOfDay() to reduce ambiguity.
• Format dates before saving to Excel or SharePoint.
• When comparing dates, always convert both to the same format and time zone.