45 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
45 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: "functions"
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page_title: "timestamp - Functions - Configuration Language"
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sidebar_current: "docs-funcs-datetime-timestamp"
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description: |-
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The timestamp function returns a string representation of the current date
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and time.
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---
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# `timestamp` Function
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-> **Note:** This page is about Terraform 0.12 and later. For Terraform 0.11 and
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earlier, see
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[0.11 Configuration Language: Interpolation Syntax](../../configuration-0-11/interpolation.html).
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`timestamp` returns the current date and time.
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In the Terraform language, timestamps are conventionally represented as
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strings using [RFC 3339](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3339)
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"Date and Time format" syntax, and so `timestamp` returns a string
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in this format.
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The result of this function will change every second, so using this function
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directly with resource attributes will cause a diff to be detected on every
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Terraform run. We do not recommend using this function in resource attributes,
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but in rare cases it can be used in conjunction with
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[the `ignore_changes` lifecycle meta-argument](./resources.html#ignore_changes)
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to take the timestamp only on initial creation of the resource.
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Due to the constantly changing return value, the result of this function cannot
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be preducted during Terraform's planning phase, and so the timestamp will be
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taken only once the plan is being applied.
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## Examples
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```
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> timestamp()
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2018-05-13T07:44:12Z
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```
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## Related Functions
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* [`formatdate`](./formatdate.html) can convert the resulting timestamp to
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other date and time formats.
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