How to handle empty object for ParseJSON in Power Automate

Occasionally, while building a Power Automate flow, you’ll need your ParseJSON action to accept an empty value—whether that value is an object ({}), array ([]), or string (""). By default, ParseJSON balks at these inputs. So how do we get around that limitation?

In this article, I’ll explore a simple, reliable approach that lets your flow handle empty JSON values gracefully.

Create Manually trigger a flow.

Add Initialize variable action.

Name: theEmpty.

Type: String/Array/Object, I choose Array for first try.

{
    "type": "InitializeVariable",
        "inputs": {
        "variables": [
            {
                "name": "theEmpty",
                "type": "array"
            }
        ]
    },
    "runAfter": { }
}

Then add a Compose.

Input :

json(
    if (
    or(
        empty(variables('theEmpty')),
        equal(variables('theEmpty'), '')
    )
    , '[]'
    , 'test' // replace this with the actual json output.
)
  )

This make sure if any empty or null input, it will be initialized as []

Last add ParseJSON action.

The content = outputs(‘Compose’)

I use minimal schema for testing. Here any valid schema will work.

Handling empty JSON values in Power Automate boils down to one small adjustment—but it removes a big source of frustration. By letting ParseJSON accept {}, [], or "", your flows stay resilient and error-free no matter what data comes through. Give the technique a try in your next project, and feel free to share any twists or improvements you discover along the way—there’s always more to automate!