# Format date field as a string?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/format-date-field-as-a-string/222733
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [March 9, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/format-date-field-as-a-string/222733 "2020-03-09T14:46:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@macau](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/macau)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/format-date-field-as-a-string/222733/1 "2020-03-09T14:46:20Z")
I would like to create a new string field from a date field (@timestamp) in the format "yyyy-MM-dd" (e.g. 2020-12-31) - is that possible with Logstash?
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### Author:  [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/format-date-field-as-a-string/222733/2 "2020-03-09T14:54:13Z")
Read through [this thread](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/date-change-day-and-month-position/221606/12).
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### Author:  [@macau](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/macau)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2020, 3:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/format-date-field-as-a-string/222733/3 "2020-03-09T15:47:52Z")
Aha, so only by jumping to ruby? Not with mutate?
Is there instead a way to zero-pad a number without ruby?
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### Author:  [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/format-date-field-as-a-string/222733/4 "2020-03-09T16:36:05Z")
You cannot convert a date using mutate. I do not think you can zero pad without using ruby.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/format-date-field-as-a-string/222733/5 "2020-04-06T16:36:08Z")
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