# Cannot use strftime in codecs

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-use-strftime-in-codecs/40534>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [January 30, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-use-strftime-in-codecs/40534 "2016-01-30T00:18:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Florin\_Andrei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c77e96/32.png) [@Florin\_Andrei](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Florin_Andrei)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-use-strftime-in-codecs/40534/1 "2016-01-30T00:18:48Z")

</div>

logstash-2.1.1

I am trying to use this codec to forward logs to a different app, using the tcp output plugin:

> <https://github.com/vmadman/logstash/blob/6ecf54b9cb1272a2338c397c1d88b6235b8619fd/lib/logstash/codecs/logio.rb>

This is the output config:

```
  tcp {
    codec => logio {
      debug_output => "true"
    }
    host => "127.0.0.1"
    port => 28777
  }

```

But when I run logstash, it throws this error:

```
NoMethodError: undefined method `strftime' for "2016-01-29T19:49:47.856Z":LogStash::Timestamp
         encode at /opt/logstash-plugins/logstash/codecs/logio.rb:158
        receive at /opt/logstash/vendor/bundle/jruby/1.9/gems/logstash-output-tcp-2.0.2/lib/logstash/outputs/tcp.rb:143
         handle at /opt/logstash/vendor/bundle/jruby/1.9/gems/logstash-core-2.1.1-java/lib/logstash/outputs/base.rb:81
    output_func at (eval):274
   outputworker at /opt/logstash/vendor/bundle/jruby/1.9/gems/logstash-core-2.1.1-java/lib/logstash/pipeline.rb:277
  start_outputs at /opt/logstash/vendor/bundle/jruby/1.9/gems/logstash-core-2.1.1-java/lib/logstash/pipeline.rb:194

```

Obviously strftime doesn't work for some reason, on line 158 in the codec.

I've tried to use sprintf in that context, but it errors out again, saying it's a "private method".

How to format time data in a codec without strftime?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:13am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cannot-use-strftime-in-codecs/40534/2 "2017-07-06T05:13:42Z")

</div>

Closed on July 6, 2017, 5:13am UTC