# Formatting date format in ES index template

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/formatting-date-format-in-es-index-template/225027>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 25, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/formatting-date-format-in-es-index-template/225027 "2020-03-25T16:47:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dany1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Dany1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Dany1)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/formatting-date-format-in-es-index-template/225027/1 "2020-03-25T16:47:16Z")

</div>

Hi,  
I'm trying to use a date with the following format Jan 25, 2018 13:02:38.015514516 CET in my data as main timestamp.  
I've tried to parse it in logstash with

`date { match => ["frame.date", "MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS Z"] target => ["my_timestamp"] }`

Without success (grok parsing failure on that field).  
Then I've tried to create an elasticsearch index template to specify my date format

`PUT _template/mytemplate { "index_patterns": "dataindex-*", "mappings": { "properties": { "frame": { "properties": { "time": { "type": "date", "format": "MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS Z" } `

without parsing success either. The error message is:

`[2020-03-25T17:25:09,706][WARN][logstash.outputs.elasticsearch][main] Could not index event to Elasticsearch. {:status=>400, :action=>["index", {:_id=>nil, :_index=>"dataindex-2020-03-25", :routing=>nil, :_type=>"_doc"}, #<LogStash::Event:0x13487e91>], :response=>{"index"=>{"_index"=>"dataindex-2020-03-25", "_type"=>"_doc", "_id"=>"IKaDEnEBrzzDqCjNCCkH", "status"=>400, "error"=>{"type"=>"mapper_parsing_exception", "reason"=>"failed to parse field [frame.time] of type [date] in document with id 'IKaDEnEBrzzDqCjNCCkH'. Preview of field's value: 'Jan 25, 2018 13:02:38.015514516 CET'", "caused_by"=>{"type"=>"illegal_argument_exception", "reason"=>"failed to parse date field [Jan 25, 2018 13:02:38.015514516 CET] with format [MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS Z]", "caused_by"=>{"type"=>"date_time_parse_exception", "reason"=>"Text 'Jan 25, 2018 13:02:38.015514516 CET' could not be parsed at index 25"}}}}}} `

Is it due to the number of decimals in my timestamp?

---

<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:** [April 22, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/formatting-date-format-in-es-index-template/225027/2 "2020-04-22T16:47:19Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.