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@@ -0,0 +1,189 @@
---
Title: Formatting date and time values
alwaysopen: false
categories:
- docs
- integrate
- rs
- rdi
description: null
group: di
linkTitle: Formatting date and time values
summary: Redis Data Integration keeps Redis in sync with a primary database in near
real time.
type: integration
weight: 40
---

The way you format date and time values depends on the source database, the data type of the field, and how it is represented in the incoming record. Below are some examples for different databases and data types.

## Oracle

Oracle supports the following date and time data types:

- `DATE` - represented by Debezium as a 64-bit integer representing the milliseconds since epoch
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_date
language: sql
# Date is stored as a Unix timestamp in milliseconds so you need to
# divide it by 1000 to convert it to seconds.
expression: STRFTIME('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', DATE / 1000, 'unixepoch')
# Example: 1749047572000 is transformed to 2025-06-04 14:32:52
```
- `TIMESTAMP` - the value is represented by Debezium as a 64-bit integer and depends on the number of decimal places of precision of the column, representing fractions of a second. For example, if the column is defined as `TIMESTAMP(6)`, there are six decimal places and so the value is represented as microseconds since epoch (since there are 10^6 microseconds in each second).
You can format it similarly to `DATE`, but you need to divide the value by the appropriate factor based on the precision.

- `TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE` - the value is represented as a string containing the timestamp and time zone.

- `TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE` - the value is represented as a string containing the timestamp and local time zone.

SQLite supports both `TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE` and `TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE`. You can format them using the `STRFTIME` function.

```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: seconds_since_epoch
language: sql
# Convert the timestamp with local time zone to seconds since epoch.
expression: STRFTIME('%s', TIMESTAMP_FIELD)

- field: date_from_timestamp
language: sql
# Convert the timestamp with local time zone to date and time.
expression: STRFTIME('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', TIMESTAMP_FIELD)
```

----

## SQL Server
SQL Server supports the following date and time data types:

- `date` - represented by Debezium as number of days since epoch (1970-01-01). You can multiply the value by 86400 (the number of seconds in a day) to convert it to seconds since epoch and then use the `STRFTIME` or `DATE` functions to format it.
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: with_default_date_format
language: sql
# Uses the default DATE format
expression: DATE(event_date * 86400, 'unixepoch')

- field: with_custom_date_format
language: sql
# Uses the default DATE format
expression: STRFTIME('%Y/%m/%d', event_date * 86400, 'unixepoch')
```

- `datetime`, `smalldatetime` - represented by Debezium as number of milliseconds since epoch. Divide the value by 1000 to convert it to seconds since epoch and then use the `STRFTIME` function to format it.
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_datetime
language: sql
expression: STRFTIME('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', event_datetime / 1000, 'unixepoch')
```

- `datetime2` - similar to `datetime` but with higher precision. For `datetime2(0-3)`, the representation is the same as for `datetime`. For `datetime2(4-6)`, it is the number of microseconds since epoch. For `datetime2(7)`, it is the number of nanoseconds since epoch. To convert to another time unit, you can use the same approach as for `datetime` but you need to divide by 1000, 1000000 or 1000000000 depending on the precision.

- `time` - the number of milliseconds since midnight.
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_time
language: sql
expression: TIME(event_time, 'unixepoch', 'utc')
```

- `datetimeoffset` - represented as a timestamp with timezone information (for example, `2025-05-27T15:21:42.864Z` or `2025-01-02T14:45:30.123+05:00`).
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_datetimeoffset
language: sql
expression: STRFTIME('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', event_datetimeoffset)
```




<!-- TODO [ilianiliev-redis]: Test and document the dynamic expressions for the rest of the supported databases - MySQL, PostgresSQL, MongoDB -->



----

## PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL supports the following date and time data types:

- `date` - represented by Debezium as number of days since epoch (1970-01-01). You can multiply the value by 86400 (the number of seconds in a day) to convert it to seconds since epoch and then use the `STRFTIME` or `DATE` functions to format it.
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: with_default_date_format
language: sql
# Uses the default DATE format
expression: DATE(event_date * 86400, 'unixepoch')
```

- `time` - the time of microseconds since midnight.
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_time
language: sql
# Divide by 1000000 to convert microseconds to seconds
expression: TIME(event_time / 1000000, 'unixepoch', 'utc')
```

- `time with time zone` - a string representation of the time with timezone information, where the timezone is GMT (for example, `07:15:00Z`).
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_time_with_tz
language: sql
expression: STRFTIME('%H:%M:%S', event_time_with_time_zone)
```

- `timestamp` - represented by Debezium as a 64-bit integer containing the microseconds since epoch. You can use the `STRFTIME` function to format it.
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_timestamp
language: sql
# Divide by 1000000 to convert microseconds to seconds
expression: STRFTIME('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', event_timestamp / 1000000, 'unixepoch')
```

- `timestamp with time zone` - represented by Debezium as a string containing the timestamp with time zone information, where the timezone is GMT (for example, `2025-06-07T10:15:00.000000Z`).
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: formatted_timestamp_with_tz
language: sql
# Divide by 1000000 to convert microseconds to seconds
expression: STRFTIME('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', event_timestamp_with_time_zone)
```
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -167,4 +167,4 @@ like the following:
6) "3:35.0"
7) "storagesize"
8) "6.71MB"
```
```
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Expand Up @@ -53,112 +53,34 @@ output:

In some cases, you can also set the expiration time based on a field that contains a date, datetime, or timestamp value, but it depends on the source database and the data types it supports. See the examples below for your specific source database and data type.

### Oracle examples
There are two main approaches you can use to set the expiration time based on a date, datetime, or timestamp field:

The transformation depends on the data type of the field in the source database:
- For values representing an elapsed time since epoch start (in milliseconds, for example), you have to convert the value to seconds since epoch and then subtract the current time (also in seconds since epoch). The difference between the two is the time until expiration.

- `DATE` - represented by debezium as a 64-bit integer representing the milliseconds since epoch
```yaml
output:
- uses: redis.write
with:
data_type: hash
expire:
# To set the expiration time to a date field, convert the value to seconds and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch
expression: EXPIRES_DATE / 1000 - STRFTIME('%s', 'now')
language: sql
```
- `TIMESTAMP` - the value is represented by Debezium as a 64-bit integer and depends on the number of decimal places of precision of the column, representing fractions of a second. For example, if the column is defined as `TIMESTAMP(6)`, there are six decimal places and so the value is represented as microseconds since epoch (since there are 10^6 microseconds in each second).
```yaml
output:
- uses: redis.write
with:
data_type: hash
expire:
# To set the expiration time to a date field, convert the value to seconds (divider differs based on the fractional second precision) and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch. Example below is for 6 digits of precision.
expression: EXPIRES_TIMESTAMP / 1000000 - STRFTIME('%s', 'now')
language: sql
```
- `TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE` - the value is represented as string representation of the timestamp with time zone information.
- `TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE` - the value is represented as string representation of the timestamp with local time zone information.

For both `TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE` and `TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE`, a two-step approach is needed. First, calculate the difference between the given time and now in seconds and then invert the value.
```yaml
transform:
- uses: add_field
with:
fields:
- field: expire_seconds
language: jmespath
expression: time_delta_seconds(EXPIRES_TS_TZ)
output:
output:
- uses: redis.write
with:
data_type: hash
expire:
# `time_delta_seconds` Returns the number of seconds between a given dt and now.
# A negative value means that the given dt is in the future, so we need to invert it.
# A positive value means that the given dt is in the past, so set the expiration to -1 (expire immediately).
expression: CASE WHEN expire_seconds < 0 THEN -expire_seconds ELSE -1 END
# To set the expiration time to a date field, convert the value to
# seconds (e.g. divide it by 1000 if the fields has milliseconds precision)
# and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch.
expression: EXPIRES_TIMESTAMP / 1000 - STRFTIME('%s', 'now')
language: sql
```

----

### SQL Server examples
SQL Server supports the following date and time data types:
- For values matching the subset of ISO 8601 supported by SQLite (for example, `2023-10-01T12:00:00`, `2023-10-01T12:00:00Z`, or `2025-06-05T13:40:14.784000+02:00`), you can use the `STRFTIME` function to convert the value to seconds since epoch and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch from it.

- `date` - represented in Debezium as number of days since epoch (1970-01-01). Please note that due to the lack of time information, this method is not very accurate.
```yaml
output:
- uses: redis.write
with:
data_type: hash
expire:
# Calculate the number of seconds equivalent to the number of days and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch.
expression: (event_date * 86400) - strftime('%s', 'now')
language: sql
```

- `datetime`, `smalldatetime` - represented in Debezium as number of milliseconds since epoch.
```yaml
output:
- uses: redis.write
with:
data_type: hash
expire:
# Since event_datetime is in miliseconds, you must divide it by 1000 to convert it to seconds.
expression: event_datetime / 1000 - strftime('%s', 'now')
language: sql
```
- `datetime2` - similar to `datetime` but with higher precision. For `datetime2(0-3)` the representation is the same as for `datetime`. For `datetime2(4-6)` it is the number of microseconds since epoch. and for `datetime2(7)` it is the number of nanoseconds since epoch. You can use the same approach as for `datetime` but you need to divide by 1000, 1000000 or 1000000000 depending on the precision.

- `time` - the time of milliseconds since midnight.
```yaml
output:
- uses: redis.write
with:
data_type: hash
expire:
# Convert the time to seconds and subtract the current time in seconds since midnight.
expression: (event_time / 1000.0) -
(
CAST(strftime('%H', 'now') AS INTEGER) * 3600 +
CAST(strftime('%M', 'now') AS INTEGER) * 60 +
CAST(strftime('%S', 'now') AS INTEGER)
)
language: sql
```
- `datetimeoffset` - represented as a timestamp with timezone information, where the timezone is GMT
```yaml
output:
- uses: redis.write
with:
data_type: hash
expire:
# Convert the time to seconds and subtract the current time in seconds since epoch.
expression: strftime('%s', event_datetimeoffset) - strftime('%s', 'now')
language: sql
expression: STRFTIME('%s', EXPIRATION_TS) - STRFTIME('%s', 'now')
```

<!-- TODO [ilianiliev-redis]: Test and document the dynamic expressions for the rest of the supported databases - MySQL, PostgresSQL, MongoDB -->
For more examples of how to manipulate date and time values, see [Formatting date and time values]({{< relref "/integrate/redis-data-integration/data-pipelines/transform-examples/formatting-date-and-time-values/">}}).