Splunk Search

Unusual date parsing.

dcollette
New Member

Is it possible to have splunk parse the following date format? Year-Day-Hour_minute_Second

i.e. 2008-265-03:19:26 would be 2008/09/22 at 3:19:26.

What I want to do is make graphs based on the time in my data, and not based on the timestamp of my log files. Right now the time field is extracted but I don't know how to work with it.

Tags (1)
0 Karma

lukejadamec
Super Champion

If you are talking about a field in your data that you want to use as a timestamp for charts, then you do Not want to use props.conf. This document will tell you how to deal with time manipulation in a search:

http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.0.1/SearchReference/convert

From the sounds of it, you want to use mktime.

0 Karma

Leo
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

Also if your timestamp doesn't start from the very beginning of the line, you need to provide the TIME_PREFIX property, which is a regex for everything that precedes the timestamp.

0 Karma

MaverickT
Communicator

Ofcourse, this is the timeformat you should use for extraction:

%Y-%j-%H:%M:%S

MaverickT
Communicator

I haven't used it in production but it works in Data prewiev wizard. Did you try with it? Maybe try playing with MAX_TIMESTAMP_LOOKAHEAD setting (set it to 17)?

0 Karma

dcollette
New Member

I put the following into a props.config file.

[source::"nameoffile"]
TIME_FORMAT = %Y-%j-%H:%M:%S

It is still resolving to the default file timestamp. Any ideas?

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Why Splunk Customers Should Attend Cisco Live 2026 Las Vegas

Why Splunk Customers Should Attend Cisco Live 2026 Las Vegas     Cisco Live 2026 is almost here, and this ...

What Is the Name of the USB Key Inserted by Bob Smith? (BOTS Hint, Not the Answer)

Hello Splunkers,   So you searched, “what is the name of the usb key inserted by bob smith?”  Not gonna lie… ...

Automating Threat Operations and Threat Hunting with Recorded Future

    Automating Threat Operations and Threat Hunting with Recorded Future June 29, 2026 | Register   Is your ...