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Date field type

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Date field type

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JSON doesn’t have a date data type, so dates in Elasticsearch can either be:

strings containing formatted dates, e.g. "2015-01-01" or "2015/01/01 12:10:30".
a number representing milliseconds-since-the-epoch.
a number representing seconds-since-the-epoch (configuration).

Values for milliseconds-since-the-epoch must be non-negative. Use a formatted date to represent dates before 1970.

Internally, dates are converted to UTC (if the time-zone is specified) and stored as a long number representing milliseconds-since-the-epoch.

Queries on dates are internally converted to range queries on this long representation, and the result of aggregations and stored fields is converted back to a string depending on the date format that is associated with the field.

Dates will always be rendered as strings, even if they were initially supplied as a long in the JSON document.

Date formats can be customised, but if no format is specified then it uses the default:

    "strict_date_optional_time||epoch_millis"

This means that it will accept dates with optional timestamps, which conform to the formats supported by strict_date_optional_time or milliseconds-since-the-epoch.

For instance:

response = client.indices.create(
  index: 'my-index-000001',
  body: {
    mappings: {
      properties: {
        date: {
          type: 'date'
        }
      }
    }
  }
)
puts response

response = client.indices.create(
  index: 'my-index-000001',
  id: 1,
  body: {
    date: '2015-01-01'
  }
)
puts response

response = client.indices.create(
  index: 'my-index-000001',
  id: 2,
  body: {
    date: '2015-01-01T12:10:30Z'
  }
)
puts response

response = client.indices.create(
  index: 'my-index-000001',
  id: 3,
  body: {
    date: 1_420_070_400_001
  }
)
puts response

response = client.indices.create(
  index: 'my-index-000001',
  body: {
    sort: {
      date: 'asc'
    }
  }
)
puts response

{
	res, err := es.Indices.Create(
		"my-index-000001",
		es.Indices.Create.WithBody(strings.NewReader(`{
	  "mappings": {
	    "properties": {
	      "date": {
	        "type": "date"
	      }
	    }
	  }
	}`)),
	)
	fmt.Println(res, err)
}

{
	res, err := es.Index(
		"my-index-000001",
		strings.NewReader(`{
	  "date": "2015-01-01"
	} `),
		es.Index.WithDocumentID("1"),
		es.Index.WithPretty(),
	)
	fmt.Println(res, err)
}

{
	res, err := es.Index(
		"my-index-000001",
		strings.NewReader(`{
	  "date": "2015-01-01T12:10:30Z"
	} `),
		es.Index.WithDocumentID("2"),
		es.Index.WithPretty(),
	)
	fmt.Println(res, err)
}

{
	res, err := es.Index(
		"my-index-000001",
		strings.NewReader(`{
	  "date": 1420070400001
	} `),
		es.Index.WithDocumentID("3"),
		es.Index.WithPretty(),
	)
	fmt.Println(res, err)
}

{
	res, err := es.Search(
		es.Search.WithIndex("my-index-000001"),
		es.Search.WithBody(strings.NewReader(`{
	  "sort": {
	    "date": "asc"
	  }
	}`)),
		es.Search.WithPretty(),
	)
	fmt.Println(res, err)
}

PUT my-index-000001
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "date": {
        "type": "date" 
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT my-index-000001/_doc/1
{ "date": "2015-01-01" } 

PUT my-index-000001/_doc/2
{ "date": "2015-01-01T12:10:30Z" } 

PUT my-index-000001/_doc/3
{ "date": 1420070400001 } 

GET my-index-000001/_search
{
  "sort": { "date": "asc"} 
}

	The `date` field uses the default `format`.
	This document uses a plain date.
	This document includes a time.
	This document uses milliseconds-since-the-epoch.
	Note that the `sort` values that are returned are all in milliseconds-since-the-epoch.

Dates will accept numbers with a decimal point like {"date": 1618249875.123456} but there are some cases (#70085) where we’ll lose precision on those dates so they should be avoided.

Multiple date formats

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Multiple formats can be specified by separating them with || as a separator. Each format will be tried in turn until a matching format is found. The first format will be used to convert the milliseconds-since-the-epoch value back into a string.

response = client.indices.create(
  index: 'my-index-000001',
  body: {
    mappings: {
      properties: {
        date: {
          type: 'date',
          format: 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss||yyyy-MM-dd||epoch_millis'
        }
      }
    }
  }
)
puts response

res, err := es.Indices.Create(
	"my-index-000001",
	es.Indices.Create.WithBody(strings.NewReader(`{
	  "mappings": {
	    "properties": {
	      "date": {
	        "type": "date",
	        "format": "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss||yyyy-MM-dd||epoch_millis"
	      }
	    }
	  }
	}`)),
)
fmt.Println(res, err)

PUT my-index-000001
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "date": {
        "type":   "date",
        "format": "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss||yyyy-MM-dd||epoch_millis"
      }
    }
  }
}

Parameters for `date` fields

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The following parameters are accepted by date fields:

`doc_values`	Should the field be stored on disk in a column-stride fashion, so that it can later be used for sorting, aggregations, or scripting? Accepts `true` (default) or `false`.
`format`	The date format(s) that can be parsed. Defaults to `strict_date_optional_time\|\|epoch_millis`.
`locale`	The locale to use when parsing dates since months do not have the same names and/or abbreviations in all languages. The default is the `ROOT` locale,
`ignore_malformed`	If `true`, malformed numbers are ignored. If `false` (default), malformed numbers throw an exception and reject the whole document. Note that this cannot be set if the `script` parameter is used.
`index`	Should the field be searchable? Accepts `true` (default) and `false`.
`null_value`	Accepts a date value in one of the configured `format`'s as the field which is substituted for any explicit `null` values. Defaults to `null`, which means the field is treated as missing. Note that this cannot be set of the `script` parameter is used.
`on_script_error`	Defines what to do if the script defined by the `script` parameter throws an error at indexing time. Accepts `fail` (default), which will cause the entire document to be rejected, and `continue`, which will register the field in the document’s `_ignored` metadata field and continue indexing. This parameter can only be set if the `script` field is also set.
`script`	If this parameter is set, then the field will index values generated by this script, rather than reading the values directly from the source. If a value is set for this field on the input document, then the document will be rejected with an error. Scripts are in the same format as their runtime equivalent, and should emit long-valued timestamps.
`store`	Whether the field value should be stored and retrievable separately from the `_source` field. Accepts `true` or `false` (default).
`meta`	Metadata about the field.

Epoch seconds

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If you need to send dates as seconds-since-the-epoch then make sure the format lists epoch_second:

PUT my-index-000001
{
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "date": {
        "type":   "date",
        "format": "strict_date_optional_time||epoch_second"
      }
    }
  }
}

PUT my-index-000001/_doc/example?refresh
{ "date": 1618321898 }

POST my-index-000001/_search
{
  "fields": [ {"field": "date"}],
  "_source": false
}

Which will reply with a date like:

{
  "hits": {
    "hits": [
      {
        "_id": "example",
        "_index": "my-index-000001",
        "_score": 1.0,
        "fields": {
          "date": ["2021-04-13T13:51:38.000Z"]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

« Boolean field type Date nanoseconds field type »

Date field type

Date field type

Multiple date formats

Parameters for date fields

Epoch seconds

Parameters for `date` fields