# I am attempting to load a CSV file that has timestamps in it. I cannot figure out the proper Timestamp format to use to consume these timestamps correctly. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

**URL:** <https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/i-am-attempting-to-load-a-csv-file-that-has-timestamps-in-it-i-cannot-figure-out-the-proper-timestamp-format-to-use-to-consume-these-timestamps-correctly-any-suggestions-would-be-greatly-appreciated/1261>\
**Category:** Matillion ETL\
**Created:** [February 16, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/i-am-attempting-to-load-a-csv-file-that-has-timestamps-in-it-i-cannot-figure-out-the-proper-timestamp-format-to-use-to-consume-these-timestamps-correctly-any-suggestions-would-be-greatly-appreciated/1261 "2021-02-16T16:33:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mgill1610467628477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@mgill1610467628477](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/mgill1610467628477)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/i-am-attempting-to-load-a-csv-file-that-has-timestamps-in-it-i-cannot-figure-out-the-proper-timestamp-format-to-use-to-consume-these-timestamps-correctly-any-suggestions-would-be-greatly-appreciated/1261/1 "2021-02-16T16:33:20Z")

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I have tried "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI A"; "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI"; "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM A"; "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM".

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Some examples of the values in the timestamp columns are :

2021-02-13 12:00 AM

2021-01-06 5:45 PM

0000-00-00 00:00:00

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**Author:** ![Nils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Nils](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/Nils)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/i-am-attempting-to-load-a-csv-file-that-has-timestamps-in-it-i-cannot-figure-out-the-proper-timestamp-format-to-use-to-consume-these-timestamps-correctly-any-suggestions-would-be-greatly-appreciated/1261/2 "2021-02-17T13:30:54Z")

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For me ''YYYY-MM-DD HH12:MI AM'' is working on Snowflake.

But your 0000-00-00 00:00:00 will cause issues because this has not the same format and is no valid date/timestamp.

So you have to replace this value using a dummy or NULL.

&nbsp;

One solution could be to import the data as string and do the calculation/casting afterwards.

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**Author:** ![Murali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Murali](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/u/Murali)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://matillioncommunity.discourse.group/t/i-am-attempting-to-load-a-csv-file-that-has-timestamps-in-it-i-cannot-figure-out-the-proper-timestamp-format-to-use-to-consume-these-timestamps-correctly-any-suggestions-would-be-greatly-appreciated/1261/3 "2021-02-17T17:20:23Z")

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Loading it as VARCHAR and then dealing with the values later is the best way to go.