# Weird issue with date sort

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 27, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646 "2018-06-27T14:35:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicolas-f](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c4cdca/32.png) [@nicolas-f](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nicolas-f)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/1 "2018-06-27T14:35:45Z")

</div>

Hi,

I have an issue with date field.

With this queries:

```auto
DELETE ds3

PUT ds3
{
   "mappings":{
      "ds2":{
         "properties":{
            "producerID":{
               "type":"keyword"
            },
            "timestamp":{
               "type":"date"
            },
            "c1":{
               "type":"double"
            },
            "c2":{
               "type":"integer"
            },
            "c3":{
               "type":"text"
            }
         }
      }
   }
}

POST ds3/ds2/ds2%23%230%23%23urn%3Adomain%3Asensors%3A1
{
   "producerID":"urn:domain:sensors:1",
   "timestamp":0,
   "c1":0.3,
   "c2":0,
   "c3":"test0"
}

POST ds3/ds2/ds2%23%4607182418800017408%23%23urn%3Adomain%3Asensors%3A1
{
   "producerID":"urn:domain:sensors:1",
   "timestamp":1000,
   "c1":10.3,
   "c2":20,
   "c3":"test10"
}

POST ds3/ds2/_search
{

   "size": 1,
    "sort" : [
        { "timestamp" : {"order" : "asc"}}
    ]
}

```

I expect the sort of the values done on timestamp to return the timestamp 0. But it return the timestamp 1000.

I'm using ElasticSearch 6.3.0

Do you know why ?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/2 "2018-06-27T18:37:48Z")

</div>

I don't know TBH. Could you try with more recent timestamps to see if this reproduces?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicolas-f](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c4cdca/32.png) [@nicolas-f](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nicolas-f)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 6:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/3 "2018-06-28T06:57:17Z")

</div>

The issue is that it won't work with timestamps \< 1000

I have to fix this because I must follow some generic unit test for storage system that use time stamps from 0 to 10000

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 7:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/4 "2018-06-28T07:11:43Z")

</div>

Why not using a number instead of a date then?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicolas-f](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c4cdca/32.png) [@nicolas-f](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nicolas-f)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 7:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/5 "2018-06-28T07:14:48Z")

</div>

Yes this is a workaround.

Is that a bug of ElasticSearch or not ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 8:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/6 "2018-06-28T08:20:58Z")

</div>

Might be. I think @jpountz already answered such a question in the past but I don't recall exactly. Adrien, could you confirm if this is an "expected bug"? 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicolas-f](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c4cdca/32.png) [@nicolas-f](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nicolas-f)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/7 "2018-07-05T13:27:12Z")

</div>

Hi,

For the record,

Solved by specifying the time format to epoch\_millis (in both mapping and in query)

Then epoch\_millis must be in the following millisecond bounds:

```
private static final long MIN_DATE_EPOCH = -62138538000000L;
private static final long MAX_DATE_EPOCH = 253336460400000L;

```

Thanks

Regards,

---

<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, 1:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/weird-issue-with-date-sort/137646/8 "2018-08-02T13:27:25Z")

</div>

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