# Parsing different date formats (difficult)

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [July 5, 2018, 5:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638 "2018-07-05T05:51:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bab/32/86201_2.png) [@bab](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bab)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 5:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/1 "2018-07-05T05:51:27Z")

</div>

Hi all,  
I have two types of timestamps coming into my logstash input from different logfiles:

> ```
> [6/13/18 8:11:25:022 CEST]
> 2018-04-17T15:19:20.313
> 
> ```

My grok below works for both:

```
if [fields][log_type] == "p8_server_error" {
  grok {
   match => [ "message", 
             "%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601:logdate} %{DATA:thread} %{DATA:sub} []* %{DATA:category} \- %{LOGLEVEL:sev} %{GREEDYDATA:message}" ]
  overwrite => ["message"]
  }
  mutate {
    replace => ["type", "p8_server_error_log"]
    }
 }
 if [fields][log_type] == "SystemOut-ICN-JVM" {
  grok {
   match => [ "message", 
             "%{DATESTAMP:logdate} %{DATA} %{DATA:thread} %{DATA:source} []* %{DATA:sev} %{DATA:module} %{DATA:log-level} %{DATA} \[\] %{DATA:java-method} %{GREEDYDATA:message}" ]
   overwrite => ["message"]
  }
  mutate {
    replace => ["type", "SystemOut-ICN-JVM_log"]
    }
 }

```

And here's the date Filter which I think is where it's failing:

```
date {
   match => ["logdate", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS", "M/dd/yy HH:mm:ss.SSS", "ISO8601"]
   }

```

The problem is that only one type this one -\> (`2018-04-17T15:19:20.313`) makes it into the ES index. So here's the subsequent error what i get:

`[2018-07-05T07:26:17,226][WARN][logstash.outputs.elasticsearch] Could not index event to Elasticsearch. {:status=>400, :action=>["index", {:_id=>nil, :_index=>"bab_4", :_type=>"doc", :_routing=>nil}, #<LogStash::Event:0x39e1735b>], :response=>{"index"=>{"_index"=>"bab_4", "_type"=>"doc", "_id"=>"NCPnaGQBAzFCu_yrxMDS", "status"=>400, "error"=>{"type"=>"mapper_parsing_exception", "reason"=>"failed to parse [logdate]", "caused_by"=>{"type"=>"illegal_argument_exception", "reason"=>"Invalid format: \"6/13/18 5:29:50:575\" is malformed at \"/13/18 5:29:50:575\""}}}}}`

What am I doing wrong here? can some one please help??

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 12:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/2 "2018-07-05T12:38:36Z")

</div>

This is really an elasticsearch issue, not a logstash issue. If you feed something like 2018-04-17T15:19:20.313 to elasticsearch it will make a note that that field (logdate) is a timestamp. It will then expect that logdate on every other document will also be in that format. elasticsearch does not recognize 6/13/18 5:29:50:575 as a timestamp. Yes, the date filter in logstash can parse it, but elasticsearch cannot.

You are using the date filter to parse it, which means @timestamp should be set correctly. At that point, do you even need a field called logdate? You could either remove\_field it, or call it a different name when it is in the second format.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bab/32/86201_2.png) [@bab](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bab)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/3 "2018-07-05T13:09:14Z")

</div>

hi @Badger,  
when i remove the logdate field it works but i need it becaus i need the log-file date on kibana to visualize. that's mean if i removed i didn't get any log-file date on Kibana, just @timestamp and i don't need it (@timestamp)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 2:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/4 "2018-07-05T14:42:30Z")

</div>

Why not use @timestamp?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bab/32/86201_2.png) [@bab](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bab)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 2:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/5 "2018-07-05T14:44:18Z")

</div>

because @timestamp does not contain the log-event date, which I parsed in grok.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/6 "2018-07-05T14:51:14Z")

</div>

Are you saying your date filter is not working?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bab/32/86201_2.png) [@bab](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bab)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/7 "2018-07-05T15:12:58Z")

</div>

my date filter does not work completely because I have two different date formats the first is parsed by pattern TIMESTAMP\_ISO6801 and the second is parsed by pattern DATESTAMP.  
The main problelm is while I parse both dates in the date filter then I get in ES only the first date, which with TIMESTAMP\_ISO6801 parsed and the other is shown as error what I have asked above.

I want to parse both date format into an own (one) date filed and in kibana the visualization not with @timestamp but with my date field.  
that mean when i will put on kibana pattern index i need there my own date field as a date filter but i get with remove\_field option just the @timestamp  
my date filetr:

```
date {
   match => ["logdate", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS", "M/dd/yy HH:mm:ss.SSS", "ISO8601"]
   target => "@timestamp" # this hier do nothing
    }
mutate { remove_field => ["logdate"] }
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/8 "2018-07-05T15:32:20Z")

</div>

Your pattern does not match your date. The separator for milliseconds is colon, not period. Try

```
date { match => ["message", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS", "MM/dd/yy HH:mm:ss:SSS"] }

```

If you want to include the timezone then you will have to do something like

```
mutate { gsub => ["message", "CEST", "Europe/Kaliningrad"] }
date { match => ["message", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS", "MM/dd/yy HH:mm:ss:SSS ZZZ"] }

```

Setting target =\> "@timestamp" does nothing because @timestamp is the default target.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bab/32/86201_2.png) [@bab](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bab)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/9 "2018-07-05T17:12:46Z")

</div>

thnak you @Badger it's work now

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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:** [August 2, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/parsing-different-date-formats-difficult/138638/10 "2018-08-02T17:12:53Z")

</div>

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