Dates and Timestamps

Dates and Timestamps Overview

There are two tools that are used to populate date fields: a calendar tool to select an exact date, and a relative date picker to select a date that is relative to the current time (now -1 day, for example). In addition, exact or relative dates can be entered manually. See any of the topics above to Enter or Select a date.

Be aware that when selecting or entering dates, the date on the system on which you are running your browser may not be the same as the date on the Guardium appliance to which you are connected.

Timestamps in Queries

Cautions need to be taken when including Timestamps in queries.

First, be aware of the distinction between a timestamp (lowercase "t") and a Timestamp (uppercase "T").

Including a Timestamp attribute value in a query will produce a row for every value of the Timestamp. This may produce an excessive amount of output. To get around this, use the count aggregator when including the Timestamp in a query, and then drill down on a report row, to view the individual Timestamp values for the items included in that row only, in a drill-down report.

When displaying a Timestamp value in a query that contains Timestamp attributes in multiple entities, be careful to select the Timestamp attribute from the appropriate entity type for the report. For example, if the query will display information from both the Client/Server and the Session entities, with the Session selected as the main entity, you can display a Timestamp attribute from one or both entities. If you include the Client/Server Timestamp, you will see the same value printed for every Session for a given client-server connection – it will always be the time at which that particular Client/Server was last updated. If you include the Timestamp attribute from the Session, you will see the time that each Session listed was last updated.

Tip: If your report displays times that are all the same when you expect them to be different, you have probably included a Timestamp attribute from an entity too high in the entity hierarchy for the level of detail you want on the report.

Select an Exact Date from Calendar

To use the Calendar Window to select an exact date:

  1. Click the (Calendar) button beside the field where you want to insert a date. This opens a calendar in a separate window.

  1. Click on any date to select that day. The calendar window will close and the selected date will be inserted into the date field beside the calendar tool that was clicked.

Note: The default time for a date selected using the calendar is always 00:00:00 (the start of the day). To specify any other time of day, type over this value, entering the desired time in 24-hour format: hh:mm:ss, where hh is the hour of the day (0-23), and mm and ss are minutes and seconds respectively (both 0-59).

Enter an Exact Date Manually

  1. Click the field where you want to enter the date and enter the date in yyyy-mm-dd format, where:

  2. If no time is entered, the time defaults to 00:00:00 (the start of the day). To specify any other time of day, type over this value, entering the desired time in 24-hour format: hh:mm:ss, where hh is the hour of the day (0-23), and mm and ss are minutes and seconds respectively (both 0-59).

Select a Relative Date from Date Picker

Rather than specify an exact date, it is often more convenient to specify dates relative to either the current date (now) or some other date (the first Monday, for example). For example, to always include information from the previous seven days in a query, it’s more convenient to define relative dates (e.g., start = now minus seven days and end = now).The Relative Date Picker tool can be used to select a relative date for many types of tasks.

  1. Click the (Relative Date Picker) button beside any field where a relative date is allowed. This opens the Relative Date Picker window.

  2. Select Now, Start, or End from the list. Regardless of your choice, the display changes to provide for additional selections. The list from which you just made the selection becomes the left-most list of three lists.

  3. From the middle list, select this, last, or previous, which is relative to the unit (day, week, month, or day of the week selected in the next list) as follows:

  4. From the right-most list, select day, week, month, or a specific day: Monday-Friday.

  5. Click the Accept button when you are done. The relative date will be inserted into the field beside the Relative Date Picker button that was clicked.

Enter a Relative Date Manually

To enter a relative date manually, follow one of the procedures outlined below. Upper or lower case is permitted when entering keywords (NOW or now, for example), and each component must be separated from the next by one or more spaces.

There are three general formats you can use to enter a relative date:

OR

OR

Relative to NOW

  1. Click in the field where you want to enter the relative date.

  2. Enter the keyword NOW.

  3. Enter a negative integer specifying the relative number of hours, days, weeks, or months (no space is allowed between the minus sign and the integer).  

  4. Enter a keyword for the units used: HOUR, DAY, WEEK, or MONTH. Be aware that the plural (hours, days, etc.) is not allowed.

Example: now -14 day

Relative to a Day, Week, or Month

  1. Click in the field where you want to enter the relative date.

  2. Enter the keywords START OF or END OF.

  3. Enter THIS or LAST, followed by DAY, WEEK, or MONTH.

Example: end of last week

Relative to a Day of the Week

  1. Click in the field where you want to enter the relative date.

  2. Enter the keywords START OF or END OF.

  3. Enter LAST or PREVIOUS, followed by SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, or SATURDAY.

Example: start of previous Tuesday