Expression Assistance for Automation - trouble with ISNOTBLANK()

[mykrobinson]

I got a fun request from one of the doctors today. He wants to track an issue they are having with a hospital not having soap available in the dispensers in rooms while rounding.

I added a "Soap Dispenser" column to a table and created a subsequent table to log the states of the soap dispensers over time. The soap dispenser column is a Y/N data type, and i created an automation to log the events upon change to this column, with the intention of having the column reset to blank each night.

My filter condition to trigger the action is

ISBLANK([_THISROW_BEFORE].[Soap Dispenser]) <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[Soap Dispenser]

My understanding of the above statement is, only perform the next step if the soap dispenser value changes from blank to not blank. But it isn't working... I mean, it logs the first change from blank to either TRUE or FALSE, but if I change the result, it logs again, despite the before state not being blank.

How do I form my expression so that my subsequent action only triggers if there is no value in the Soap Dispenser column before the change?

[Suvrutt_Gurjar · Accepted solution]

You may want to try this based on understanding of the description-

AND(ISBLANK([_THISROW_BEFORE].[Soap Dispenser]), [_THISROW_BEFORE].[Soap Dispenser]<> [_THISROW_AFTER].[Soap Dispenser]) 

If this does not work, you may want to elaborate your requirement. Somehow the exact requirement is not clear.

[mykrobinson]

this works, thank you. Essentially, i only want the new record to be added to the table if the column was blank before the change. I don't want records being added, otherwise, and the value will be reset to blank daily through another automation.