# Can't use specific date field as primary time field
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-specific-date-field-as-primary-time-field/273542
**Category:** Kibana
**Created:** [May 20, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-specific-date-field-as-primary-time-field/273542 "2021-05-20T13:08:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Travis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Travis)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-specific-date-field-as-primary-time-field/273542/1 "2021-05-20T13:08:05Z")
Hello !
I have the field "Generated Time" in my message. I want to use it as primary date field in Kibana.
To do so, I create my index pattern and choose "Generated Time" as primary date field. But once in Discover, nothing is displayed. Like if Kibana don't understand this field.
GET myindex/\_search :
```
{
"took" : 0,
"timed_out" : false,
"_shards" : {
"total" : 1,
"successful" : 1,
"skipped" : 0,
"failed" : 0
},
"hits" : {
"total" : {
"value" : 1,
"relation" : "eq"
},
"max_score" : 1.0,
"hits" : [
{
"_index" : "palo",
"_type" : "_doc",
"_id" : "lZdviXkBTGy11OBhDMD8",
"_score" : 1.0,
"_source" : {
"@timestamp" : "2021-05-20T11:00:30.917Z",
"Receive Time" : "2021/05/20 14:06:46",
"Packets Received" : "1",
"Session ID" : "1299262",
"Destination Port" : "53",
"Destination VM UUID" : null,
"Generated Time" : "2021/05/20 14:06:46",
"NAT Destination IP" : "0.0.0.0",
"Monitor Tag/IMEI" : null,
"SCTP Chunks Sent" : "0",
"syslog_timestamp" : "May 20 14:06:47",
"Device Group Hierarchy Level 1" : "1829",
"NAT Destination Port" : "0"
}
}
]
}
}
```
mapping :
```
"Generated Time" : {
"type" : "date",
"format" : "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss||yyyy/MM/dd||epoch_millis"
},
```
If I choose @timestamp as primary date field, it works. I can see the log.
Thanks for your help !
---
### Author:  [@flash1293](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/flash1293)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-specific-date-field-as-primary-time-field/273542/2 "2021-05-20T13:50:31Z")
In Discover there's an "Inspect" button in the top right - could you copy/paste the request Discover is doing here? I suspect the space in the field name to be problematic.
---
### Author:  [@Travis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Travis)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-specific-date-field-as-primary-time-field/273542/3 "2021-05-20T18:03:31Z")
Strange...
I changed
```
"Generated Time" : {
"type" : "date",
"format" : "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss||yyyy/MM/dd||epoch_millis"
},
```
with
```
"Generated Time" : {
"type" : "date",
"format" : "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss"
},
```
and now it's working.
Two pipe in date format = "or" right ?
---
### Author:  [@Travis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Travis)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2021, 9:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-specific-date-field-as-primary-time-field/273542/4 "2021-05-21T09:22:35Z")
Hmm...it looks like it was not representativ as it doesn't working anymore (I juste tested with one log yesterday)
Here is the request Discover @flash1293
```
{
"version": true,
"size": 500,
"sort": [
{
"Generated Time": {
"order": "desc",
"unmapped_type": "boolean"
}
}
],
"aggs": {
"2": {
"date_histogram": {
"field": "Generated Time",
"calendar_interval": "1d",
"time_zone": "UTC",
"min_doc_count": 1
}
}
},
"stored_fields": [
"*"
],
"script_fields": {},
"docvalue_fields": [
{
"field": "@timestamp",
"format": "date_time"
},
{
"field": "Generated Time",
"format": "date_time"
},
{
"field": "Receive Time",
"format": "date_time"
},
{
"field": "Start Time",
"format": "date_time"
}
],
"_source": {
"excludes": []
},
"query": {
"bool": {
"must": [],
"filter": [
{
"match_all": {}
},
{
"range": {
"Generated Time": {
"gte": "2021-02-20T09:20:05.739Z",
"lte": "2021-05-21T09:20:05.739Z",
"format": "strict_date_optional_time"
}
}
}
],
"should": [],
"must_not": []
}
},
"highlight": {
"pre_tags": [
"@kibana-highlighted-field@"
],
"post_tags": [
"@/kibana-highlighted-field@"
],
"fields": {
"*": {}
},
"fragment_size": 2147483647
}
}
```
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 9:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/cant-use-specific-date-field-as-primary-time-field/273542/5 "2021-06-18T09:22:43Z")
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