# Display a date in a Markdown widget?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [May 14, 2019, 9:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965 "2019-05-14T09:18:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbarnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gbarnett](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gbarnett)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 9:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/1 "2019-05-14T09:18:29Z")

</div>

I have a SQL query associated with my Canvas Markdown widget that returns a single value that is a date. I'm struggling to see how to display this date in a Markdown widget. {{MyDate}} doesn't display anything, even though in the SQL preview the MyDate value is correct. Apparently, Markdown is expecting to see the date as a string as opposed to a date field. Any examples of how to display the MyDate value?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![azasypkin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/azasypkin/32/42216_2.png) [@azasypkin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/azasypkin)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 10:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/2 "2019-05-14T10:36:29Z")

</div>

Hi @gbarnett,

It's hard to tell without knowing the data shape and the Canvas expression you have. Since SQL query usually returns a number of rows, you need to iterate over them to be able to retrieve the value in Markdown, e.g. something like this:

```auto
{{#each rows}}
Time: {{timestamp}}
{{/each}}

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbarnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gbarnett](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gbarnett)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 11:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/3 "2019-05-14T11:29:16Z")

</div>

Firstly, I'm using a Markdown widget in my canvas. Secondly, the dataset associated with this widget is a simple query that returns a single date value, called MyDate. If I PREVIEW the query, I can see where it is indeed returning a single value (2019-05-01T01:00:00+01:00), and that value has the correct date from the database. However, if I specify Date: {{MyDate}} in the Markdown, it doesn't complain, but doesn't display anything.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![azasypkin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/azasypkin/32/42216_2.png) [@azasypkin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/azasypkin)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 11:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/4 "2019-05-14T11:32:59Z")

</div>

Can you share the entire expression with the SQL query?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbarnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gbarnett](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gbarnett)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/5 "2019-05-16T00:17:38Z")

</div>

MyDate is defined in my document mapping as ‘date’. In the markdown widget, my dataset is SELECT MyDate from MyDataset LIMIT 1

My Markdown is Date: {{MyDate}}

The value of MyDate is not displayed. However, it definitely has a valid date value.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![azasypkin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/azasypkin/32/42216_2.png) [@azasypkin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/azasypkin)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 7:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/6 "2019-05-16T07:18:43Z")

</div>

> [@gbarnett](#):
>
> My Markdown is Date: {{MyDate}}
> 
> The value of MyDate is not displayed. However, it definitely has a valid date value.

As I already said, SQL returns table with one row in your case, not scalar value. To display the cell you need to treat data as a table, e.g. using the Kibana demo data:

```auto
filters
| essql query="SELECT timestamp as MyDate FROM \"kibana_sample_data_flights\" LIMIT 1"
| markdown "My date is {{#each rows}}{{MyDate}}{{/each}}"
| render

```

or

```auto
filters
| essql query="SELECT timestamp as MyDate FROM \"kibana_sample_data_flights\" LIMIT 1"
| markdown {getCell MyDate}
| render

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbarnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gbarnett](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gbarnett)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/7 "2019-05-16T17:03:51Z")

</div>

I am now able to display the number of rows returned from my query by displaying {{rows.length}}, however, using...

{{#each row}}  
**{{MyDate}}**  
{{/each}}

The date is still not being displayed. Is there an issue in that Markdown can only handle strings, and not date datatypes? In the SQL query, I can see that a single row is being returned, and the MyDate column has the correct date value.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gbarnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gbarnett](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/gbarnett)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/8 "2019-05-16T17:12:59Z")

</div>

I found the issue in my last example. It should be "rows" not "row". It was failing silently, but works now that I corrected the syntax.

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<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:** [June 13, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/display-a-date-in-a-markdown-widget/180965/9 "2019-06-13T17:13:04Z")

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