Mastering Power Automate Expressions from A to Z
- Jon Russell
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
Hi, how are you?
It's been a while !
I posted a Linkedin carousel series of posts of some of the functions I find useful in Power Automate. Charlotte Limeslade then asked if I could write up a blog post about it. So here it is.
A-F
Expression
add()
Use Case
Used to add numbers or time values
Example
add(5,10) returns 15.
Expression
base64()
Use Case
Converts text to base64 encoding (commonly used for APIs or email attachments).
Example
base64(Hello) returns SGVsbG8=
Expression
concat()
Use Case
Combines multiple text string into one.
Example
concat ('Hello', ' ','world') returns Hello world.
Expression
div()
Use Case
Divides one number by another.
Example
div(10,2) returns 5.
Expression
endsWith()
Use Case
Checks if a string ends with specific text.
Example
endsWith('Hello World', 'World') returns true.
Expression
formatDateTime()
Use Case
Formats dates and times into a readable string or specific format.
Example
formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'yyyy-MM-dd') returns 2025-06-02.
G-L
Expression
greater()
Use Case
Compares two numbers to see if the first is greater.
Example
greater (10, 5) returns true.
Expression
indexOf()
Use Case
Finds the position of a substring within a string.
Example
indexOf('Hello World', 'World') returns 6.
Expression
join()
Use Case
Combines an array into a single string, separated by a character.
Example
join(['apple', 'banana', pear'], ',') returns apple, banana, pear.
Expression
length()
Use Case
Returns the length of a string, array, or object.
Example
length('Hello') returns 5.
M-R
Expression
max()
Use Case
Returns the maximum value from a list of numbers.
Example
max (5, 10, 20) returns 20.
Expression
not()
Use Case
Negates a condition, returning the opposite (true/false).
Example
not(equals(5,5)) returns false.
Expression
or()
Use Case
Returns true if any condition is true.
Example
or (equals(5,5), equals (3,4)) returns true.
Expression
parseDateTime()
Use Case
Return the timestamp from a string that contains a timestamp.
Example
parseDateTime('10-20/2014 15h', 'en-US', 'MM/dd/yyyy hh\h') // Returns '2014-10-20T15:00:00.0000000'.
Expression
replace()
Use Case
Replaces part of a string with another string.
Example
replace('Hello World', 'World', 'Universe') returns Hello Universe.
S-Z
Expression
substring()
Use Case
Returns part of a string based on start and length.
Example
substring ('Hello',1,3) returns ell.
Expression
trim()
Use Case
Removes spaces from the beginning and end of a string.
Example
trim(' Hello ') returns Hello.
Expression
union()
Use Case
Returns unique values from two arrays.
Example
union(['A', 'B'], ['B', 'C']) returns ['A','B',C'].
Expression
variables()
Use Case
Return the value for a specified variable.
Example
Suppose the current value for a "numItems" variable is 20. This example gets the integer value for this variable:
variables('numItems') would return 20.
Expression
xml()
Use Case
Converts a JSON String to XML format
Example
xml('{"name":"JonDoesFlow"}') returns <name>JonDoesFlow</name>.
Thanks, I hope some of these help.