# Set @timestamp manually

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/set-timestamp-manually/36176>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [December 2, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/set-timestamp-manually/36176 "2015-12-02T13:30:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![shaharmor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58f4c7/32.png) [@shaharmor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shaharmor)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/set-timestamp-manually/36176/1 "2015-12-02T13:30:04Z")

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Hi,

Currently we use the logstash date filter to match our timestamp field (named \_time) using this config:

```auto
date {
        match => ["_time", "UNIX_MS"]
        remove_field => ["_time"]
    }

```

I see that all this plugin is doing is put the value as a unix timestamp in the @timestamp field.  
But the \_time field is already a unix timestamp (Created using javascript Date.now()), so basically if i will just rename my \_time field @timestamp will it work the same?

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**Author:** ![vtst2412](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/vtst2412/32/6228_2.png) [@vtst2412](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/vtst2412)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/set-timestamp-manually/36176/2 "2015-12-02T17:48:53Z")

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Try it. 🙂

My guess is no. the @timestamp field is technically a LogStash::Timestamp type. It's also one of those special exported fields that exists at the event genesis, so you can't simply rename \_time to @timestamp (it may not let you overwrite the existing @timestamp field).

But like I say, try it 😀. I'm interested to see the outcome to.

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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:** [July 6, 2017, 5:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/set-timestamp-manually/36176/3 "2017-07-06T05:20:19Z")

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