# Issue querying for dates
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-querying-for-dates/3266
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 26, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-querying-for-dates/3266 "2010-08-26T20:57:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Grant\_Rodgers](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Grant_Rodgers)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-querying-for-dates/3266/1 "2010-08-26T20:57:14Z")
Hi, I'm having an issue querying for dates, and it's probably me using
the query dsl wrong, but I can't figure out what the problem is.
This query works:
{
"query":{
"range":{
"created\_at":{
"from":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z",
"to":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
}
}
}
}
but this query doesn't:
{
"query":{
"field":{
"created\_at":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
}
}
}
It throws this exception: [http://gist.github.com/552231](http://gist.github.com/552231)
I'm using 0.9.0 for this test.
Is there something wrong here?
---
### Author:  [@Grant\_Rodgers](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Grant_Rodgers)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-querying-for-dates/3266/2 "2010-08-26T21:01:01Z")
Oh also here's the mapping for that field:
```
"created_at" : {
"omit_term_freq_and_positions" : true,
"index_name" : "created_at",
"index" : "not_analyzed",
"omit_norms" : true,
"store" : "no",
"boost" : 1.0,
"format" : "dateOptionalTime",
"precision_step" : 4,
"term_vector" : "no",
"type" : "date"
},
```
On Aug 26, 1:57 pm, Grant Rodgers [gra...@gmail.com](mailto:gra...@gmail.com) wrote:
> Hi, I'm having an issue querying for dates, and it's probably me using
> the query dsl wrong, but I can't figure out what the problem is.
>
> This query works:
> {
> "query":{
> "range":{
> "created\_at":{
> "from":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z",
> "to":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
> }
> }
> }
>
> }
>
> but this query doesn't:
> {
> "query":{
> "field":{
> "created\_at":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
> }
> }
>
> }
>
> It throws this exception:[gist:552231 ยท GitHub](http://gist.github.com/552231)
>
> I'm using 0.9.0 for this test.
>
> Is there something wrong here?
---
### Author:  [@Clinton\_Gormley](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Clinton_Gormley)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-querying-for-dates/3266/3 "2010-08-26T21:38:15Z")
> but this query doesn't:
> {
> "query":{
> "field":{
> "created\_at":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
> }
> }
> }
A 'field' query is for query strings. Use a term query instead:
{
"query":{
"field":{
"term":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
}
}
}
clint
---
### Author:  [@Grant\_Rodgers](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Grant_Rodgers)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-querying-for-dates/3266/4 "2010-08-26T22:12:07Z")
Ah, it makes sense now that I know field queries are query strings,
because colons are reserved in query strings. Escaping the colons
fixes the query:
{
"query":{
"field":{
"created\_at":"2010-08-26T20\:41\:52Z"
}
}
}
(double backslashes so the json parser doesn't throw an error)
Thanks!
On Aug 26, 2:38 pm, Clinton Gormley [clin...@iannounce.co.uk](mailto:clin...@iannounce.co.uk) wrote:
> > but this query doesn't:
> > {
> > "query":{
> > "field":{
> > "created\_at":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
> > }
> > }
> > }
>
> A 'field' query is for query strings. Use a term query instead:
>
> {
> "query":{
> "field":{
> "term":"2010-08-26T20:41:52Z"
> }
> }
>
> }
>
> clint
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 4:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/issue-querying-for-dates/3266/5 "2017-07-06T04:20:17Z")