# Insert {now-1m/d} failure
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/insert-now-1m-d-failure/204160
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [October 18, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/insert-now-1m-d-failure/204160 "2019-10-18T03:48:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ajhstn](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ajhstn)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/insert-now-1m-d-failure/204160/1 "2019-10-18T03:48:57Z")
Hello is it possible to insert a document using the current time, like this?
```
PUT /tmp
{
"mappings": {
"properties": {
"@timestamp": {
"type": "date"
}
}
}
}
POST tmp/_doc/1
{
"@timestamp":"{now-1m/d}"
}
```
So far i am unsuccessful, but unsure it this is not possible, or i am doing something wrong.
```
{
"error": {
"root_cause": [
{
"type": "mapper_parsing_exception",
"reason": "failed to parse field [@timestamp] of type [date] in document with id '1'. Preview of field's value: '{now-1m/d}'"
}
],
"type": "mapper_parsing_exception",
"reason": "failed to parse field [@timestamp] of type [date] in document with id '1'. Preview of field's value: '{now-1m/d}'",
"caused_by": {
"type": "illegal_argument_exception",
"reason": "failed to parse date field [{now-1m/d}] with format [strict_date_optional_time||epoch_millis]",
"caused_by": {
"type": "date_time_parse_exception",
"reason": "Failed to parse with all enclosed parsers"
}
}
},
"status": 400
```
It is hard to tell if what i am trying IS possible, but i need to set the date format, or what i am trying is NOT possible.
---
### Author:  [@abdon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/abdon)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2019, 6:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/insert-now-1m-d-failure/204160/2 "2019-10-22T06:42:59Z")
Unfortunately, you cannot use the `now` syntax at index time. It is a query-time construct.
What you could do instead is define an [ingest pipeline](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/ingest.html) that automatically adds a timestamp to your documents. [This post](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/dec-12th-2018-en-elasticsearch-automatically-adding-a-timestamp-to-documents/159314) explains how to do that. Instead of the `set` processor used in that post, you'd use a [`script` processor](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/script-processor.html) to format the date exactly how you want it.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2019, 6:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/insert-now-1m-d-failure/204160/3 "2019-11-19T06:43:16Z")
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