Formats a string according to strftime, similar to unix strftime.

ParameterTypeRequiredDefault ValueDescription
asstringrequired   Specifies the output field.
fieldstringoptional[a] @timestamp Contains a 64-bit integer that is interpreted as either seconds or milliseconds since the Unix epoch (00:00:00 on 1 January 1970, in the timezone specified by timezone). Whether the integer is interpreted as seconds or milliseconds is controlled by the unit parameter.
format[b]stringrequired   Format string. A subset of Java Date/Time escapes is supported by LogScale, see the following table.
localestringoptional[a]   Specifies the locale such as US or en_GB.
timezonestringoptional[a] UTC Specifies the timezone such as GMT, EST or Europe/London. See the full list of timezones supported by LogScale at Supported Time Zones. If no timezone is present, UTC is used.

[a] Optional parameters use their default value unless explicitly set.

[b] The parameter name format can be omitted.

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formatTime() Function Operation

The formatTime() function formats times using a subset of the Java Formatter pattern format. The following formats are supported:

Symbol Description Example
%H Hour of the day for the 24-hour clock, formatted as two digits with a leading zero as necessary. 00, 23
%I Hour for the 12-hour clock, formatted as two digits with a leading zero as necessary. 01, 12
%k Hour of the day for the 24-hour clock. 0, 23
%l Hour for the 12-hour clock. 1, 12
%M Minute within the hour formatted as two digits with a leading zero as necessary. 00, 59
%S Seconds within the minute, formatted as two digits with a leading zero as necessary. 00, 60 (leap second)
%L Millisecond within the second formatted as three digits with leading zeros as necessary. 000 - 999
%N Nanosecond within the second, formatted as nine digits with leading zeros as necessary. 000000000 - 999999999
%p Locale-specific morning or afternoon marker in lower case. am, pm
%z RFC 822 style numeric time zone offset from GMT. -0800
%Z A string representing the abbreviation for the time zone. UTC, EAT
%s Seconds since the beginning of the epoch starting at 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UTC (UNIXTIME) 1674304923
%Q Milliseconds since the beginning of the epoch starting at 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UTC 1674304923001.
%B Locale-specific full month name. "January", "February"
%b Locale-specific abbreviated month name. "Jan", "Feb"
%h Same as 'b'. "Jan", "Feb"
%A Locale-specific full name of the day of the week. "Sunday", "Monday"
%a Locale-specific short name of the day of the week. "Sun", "Mon".
%C Four-digit year divided by 100, formatted as two digits with leading zero as necessary 00, 99
%Y Year, formatted as at least four digits with leading zeros as necessary. 0092, 2023
%y Last two digits of the year, formatted with leading zeros as necessary. 00, 23
%j Day of year, formatted as three digits with leading zeros as necessary. 001 - 366
%m Month, formatted as two digits with leading zeros as necessary. 01 - 13
%d Day of month, formatted as two digits with leading zeros as necessary. 01 - 31
%e Day of month, formatted as two digits. 1 - 31
%R Time formatted as %H:%M. 23:59
%T Time formatted as %H:%M:%S. 23:59:59
%r Time formatted as %I:%M:%S %p. AM and PM will be uppercase unlike for %p. 01:21:11 PM
%D Date formatted as %m/%d/%y. 01/31/23
%F ISO 8601 complete date formatted as %Y-%m-%d. 1989-06-04
%c Date and time formatted as %a %b %d %T %Z %Y. Thu Feb 02 11:03:28 Z 2023

By default, the function will automatically detect whether the field contains a timestamp in seconds or milliseconds, based on its numeric value:

  • If the given timestamp has less than 12 digits, it is interpreted as a timestamp in seconds.

  • if it has 12 digits or more, it is interpreted as a timestamp in milliseconds.

You can change the default auto-detection by specifically setting parameter unit to seconds or milliseconds.

When specifying the unit, the value must be a long integer and not a floating point value.

formatTime() Syntax Examples

Format time as 2021/11/26 06:54:45 using the timestamp field and UTC timezone using assignment to fmttime:

logscale
time := formatTime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S", field=@timestamp, locale=en_US, timezone=Z)

Format time as Thursday 18 November 2021, 22:59 using US locale and PST time zone setting the as parameter to fmttime:

logscale
formatTime("%A %d %B %Y, %R", as=fmttime, field=@timestamp, timezone=PST)

Format time variant where the unit is explicit:

logscale
formatTime("%A %d %B %Y, %R", as=fmttime, field=@timestamp, timezone=PST, unit=milliseconds)

Formatting a time where the unit is explicit and the supplied value is a floating-point figure:

logscale
regex(field=InstallDate, "(?<InstallDate>\\d+)")
| formatTime("%A %d %B %Y, %R", as=fmttime, field=InstallDate, timezone=PST, unit=seconds)

In the above example, only the digits are extracted through the regular expression and then used as the basis for the formatTime() call.

formatTime()Examples

Click + next to an example below to get the full details.

List All EC2 Hosts With FirstSeen Data Within 14 Days

List all the EC2 hosts with FirstSeen data within 14 days using the groupBy() function with selectLast()

Query
logscale
#repo=sensor_metadata #data_source_name=aidmaster cloud.provider = "AWS_EC2_V2"
| groupBy([aid], function=(selectLast([event_platform, aid, ComputerName, AgentVersion, FirstSeen])), limit=max)
| FirstSeen := formatTime("%FT%T%z", field=FirstSeen)
| TimeDelta := now() - duration("14d")
Introduction

In this example, the groupBy() function is used with selectLast() to retrieve the latest information about AWS EC2 instances running CrowdStrike sensors, showing their platform, hostname, agent version, and when they were first seen, with a 14-day reference point for age comparison.

Example incoming data (raw data in sensor_metadata) might look like this:

@timestampaidcloud.providerevent_platformComputerNameAgentVersionFirstSeen
2025-05-20T10:00:00Z1234abcdAWS_EC2_V2Windowsec2-web-016.45.156782025-01-15T08:30:00Z
2025-05-21T11:00:00Z1234abcdAWS_EC2_V2Windowsec2-web-016.45.156792025-01-15T08:30:00Z
2025-05-22T12:00:00Z5678efghAWS_EC2_V2Linuxec2-app-026.45.156782025-02-01T14:45:00Z
2025-05-23T13:00:00Z5678efghAWS_EC2_V2Linuxec2-app-026.45.156792025-02-01T14:45:00Z
2025-05-24T14:00:00Z90123ijkAWS_EC2_V2Windowsec2-db-036.45.156782025-03-10T09:15:00Z
2025-05-25T15:00:00Z90123ijkAWS_EC2_V2Windowsec2-db-036.45.156792025-03-10T09:15:00Z
Step-by-Step

  1. Starting with the source repository events.

  2. logscale
    #repo=sensor_metadata #data_source_name=aidmaster cloud.provider = "AWS_EC2_V2"

    Searches in the sensor_metadata repository, and filters for #data_source_name fields containing the value aidmaster, looking for cloud.provider of the type AWS_EC2_V2 only.

  3. logscale
    | groupBy([aid], function=(selectLast([event_platform, aid, ComputerName, AgentVersion, FirstSeen])), limit=max)

    Groups results by the field aid (Agent ID). Then, for each unique group, selects the most recent values for the fields: event_platform, aid, ComputerName, AgentVersion, FirstSeen.

    Using the selectLast() within the groupBy() is what actually selects the most recent record for each group.

  4. logscale
    | FirstSeen := formatTime("%FT%T%z", field=FirstSeen)

    Formats the timestamp in the FirstSeen field into ISO 8601 format. on. The result is stored back in the FirstSeen field.

  5. logscale
    | TimeDelta := now() - duration("14d")

    Calculates timestamp from 14 days ago, and returns the results into a new field named TimeDelta.

    The calculation is done by subtracting a 14-day duration from the current time using duration().

    This new TimeDelta field that represents a timestamp from 14 days ago, can be used for filtering or comparing against the FirstSeen timestamps.

  6. Event Result set.

Summary and Results

The query is used to retrieve the latest information about AWS EC2 instances running CrowdStrike sensors, showing their platform, hostname, agent version, and when they were first seen, with a 14-day reference point for age comparison.

The query is useful, for example, for auditing EC2 instance coverage, identifying newly added EC2 instances within the last two weeks, monitoring sensor versions or identifying aging or outdated installations.

Sample output from the incoming example data:

aidevent_platformComputerNameAgentVersionFirstSeenTimeDelta
1234abcdWindowsec2-web-016.45.156792025-01-15T08:30:00+00002025-05-12T13:06:56+0000
5678efghLinuxec2-app-026.45.156792025-02-01T14:45:00+00002025-05-12T13:06:56+0000
90123ijkWindowsec2-db-036.45.156792025-03-10T09:15:00+00002025-05-12T13:06:56+0000

Each aid appears only once with its most recent values. Note that TimeDelta value is based on the current date provided (Mon, 26 May 2025 13:06:56 GMT).

Sort Timestamps With groupBy()

Sorting fields based on aggregated field values

Query

Search Repository: humio

logscale
timestamp := formatTime(format="%H:%M")
| groupBy([thread],
function=[{sort("timestamp")
| collect("timestamp")}])
Introduction

When using aggregation, you may want to sort on a field that is part of the aggregated set but not the main feature of the aggregated value. For example, sorting the values by their timestamp rather than the embedded value. To achieve this, you should use a function that sorts the field to be used as the sort field, and then use collect() so that the value from before the aggregation can be displayed in the generated event set. This query can be executed in the humio respository.

Step-by-Step

  1. Starting with the source repository events.

  2. logscale
    timestamp := formatTime(format="%H:%M")

    Creates a new field, timestamp formatted as HH:MM.

  3. logscale
    | groupBy([thread],

    Groups the events, first by the name of the thread and then the formatted timestamp.

  4. logscale
    function=[{sort("timestamp")
| collect("timestamp")}])

    Uses the sort() combined with collect() as the method fo aggregation. As an embedded expression for the function, this will sort the events on the timestamp field and then retrieve the field as it would normally be removed as part of the aggregation process.

  5. Event Result set.

Summary and Results

The result set will contain a list of the aggregated thread names sorted by the timestamp:

threadtimestamp
BootstrapInfoJob10:09
DataSynchJob10:09
Global event loop10:10
LocalLivequeryMonitor10:09
LogCollectorManifestUpdate10:09
TransientChatter event loop10:10
aggregate-alert-job10:09
alert-job10:09
block-processing-monitor-job10:09
bloom-scheduler10:09
bucket-entity-config10:09
bucket-overcommit-metrics-job10:09
bucket-storage-download10:09
bucket-storage-prefetch10:09
chatter-runningqueries-logger10:09
chatter-runningqueries-stats10:09