Simplified Number Formatting

In an effort to extend our built-in actions for an improved experience at any level of experience with flows, the Power Automate team is happy to release the new Format number action. This new action enables you to perform a variety of number formatting options painlessly, and by leveraging number formatting patterns which exist across Power Platform services.

Select a format from the drop-down list of options:

…or create your own custom number format, just like you do in Microsoft Excel using “Enter custom value”

Brief video demonstration 

This new action will prove to be helpful in many scenarios, as well as for both citizen and professional developer roles. Value highlights include:

• Maintain numeric values as numbers for in-process calculations, yet format the appearance of the number based on typical patterns such as Currency formats.
• Leverage past knowledge with custom formatting patterns previously learned in Excel, Power BI and Power Apps expressions.
• Vary currency formats as per the business process requirements, rather than only the flow-maker’s locale.
• Includes developer-friendly patterns such as C2 (currency with two decimal places), and N2 (negative number with two decimal places). Learn more about these .Net formatting standards here.

Thank you for your patience as we worked on this new action. You can look forward to many more actions like this during calendar year 2020!

As usual, we await your feedback on the Ideas Forum. Happy New Year!

Audrie