---
id: parsedate
title: parseDate Operator
description: Use the parseDate operator to extract a date or time from a string and convert it to a timestamp in milliseconds.
slug: /help/docs/search/search-query-language/parse-operators/parsedate/
canonical: https://www.sumologic.com/help/docs/search/search-query-language/parse-operators/parsedate/
---


The parseDate operator extracts a date or time from a string and provides a timestamp in milliseconds. 

:::note
- To convert an epoch timestamp to a human-readable format, use the [`formatDate`](/docs/search/search-query-language/search-operators/formatdate) operator.
- `parseDate` operator supports timestamp only in milliseconds.
:::

## Syntax

* `parseDate(<strDate>, <dateFormat>)`
* `parseDate(<strDate>, <dateFormat>, <timeZone>)`

## Rules

* `strDate` must start with the characters to match with the `dateFormat` pattern. For example, "3/4/2005 other" but not "other 3/4/2005".
* `dateFormat` is a pattern string, such as "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss a". A full list of the supported patterns can be found on [Java's simpledateformat](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html) documentation.
* If you do not supply `timeZone`, the operator defaults to the time zone set in your [preferences](../../../get-started/account-settings-preferences.md). For a list of `timeZone` codes, see the [List of tz database time zones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones).

## Examples

### Parse an ISO 8601 date string

Given the date `2019-11-18T19:00:00.000-08:00` you'd specify the `dateFormat` as `yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX`:

```sumo
| parseDate(date, "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX") as milliseconds
```

### Parse a custom date format from a log field

Given a log message such as:

```
instance of Win32_NTLogEvent
{
    EventIdentifier = 100;
    Logfile = "Application";
    RecordNumber = 894528;
    SourceName = "Bonjour Service";
    TimeGenerated = "20170720000030.000000-000";
    TimeWritten = "20170720000030.000000-000";
    Type = "Error";
    ...
}
```

The following query returns TimeGenerated as a timestamp in milliseconds (in this example, 1500534030000):

```sumo
| parse "TimeGenerated = \"*.000000-000" as dd
| parseDate(dd, "yyyyMMddHHmmss") as milliseconds
```

### Specify a time zone

To parse a date string using a specific time zone:

```sumo
| parse "TimeGenerated = \"*.000000-000" as dd
| parseDate(dd, "yyyyMMddHHmmss", "etc/utc") as milliseconds
```