Add DateTime type with milliseconds

[dawid_nawrot]

I work with data where milliseconds is my saviour when I count distinct the datetime to get number of events. Alteryx ignores the millisecond part (as lots of other BI tool providers - I don't know what is going on with this idea that milliseconds are not needed). Yes I can convert it to string but it's not the best practice to create duplicate fields just so that I have date part for date-related calculation (plotting, time difference) and on the other hand string value for quick and easy counting..

[MsBindy]

#4) This is what my data looks like:

2022-10-07 14:58:37.000627

And I agree with @Hiblet that we should be able to treat this data like other date data.

[ChrisK]

@MsBindy What things do you need to do with data like "2022-10-07 14:58:37.000627" What is most important to you?

1. compute differences between them, add some time units to them?
2. Sort them into order?
3. Write them to files? Write them to Databases? (using what field type?)
4. Read them from files? Read them from Databases?
5. Format them to human readable dates, like Oct. 7, 2022, 2:58:37.000627 PM ?
6. Parse them from human readable dates?
7. Truncate or round them to less precise time, like 14:58:37.001?
8. Get the current time to higher precision?
9. Do you ever operate with mis-matched precision? That is, do you have some data in milliseconds and some in nanoseconds, but you need to find the difference between them?

[MsBindy]

I am mainly sorting and subtracting to find out how much time has passed between steps in a process.

[AMCG]

Requested as far back as 2015 https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Milliseconds-Need-Help/td-p/4624

Pretty lame that it even takes upvotes to have this deficiency fixed

[TonyaS]

In case folks missed that this was changed to Accepted, it is in progress for implementation in an upcoming Release. I am updating the status to "Coming Soon" to make that more clear. 

Those interested in this functionality can help by providing some answers to the questions posed earlier: 

What things do you need to do with data like "2022-10-07 14:58:37.000627" What is most important to you?

1. compute differences between them, add some time units to them?
2. Sort them into order?
3. Write them to files? Write them to Databases? (using what field type?)
4. Read them from files? Read them from Databases?
5. Format them to human readable dates, like Oct. 7, 2022, 2:58:37.000627 PM ?
6. Parse them from human readable dates?
7. Truncate or round them to less precise time, like 14:58:37.001?
8. Get the current time to higher precision?
9. Do you ever operate with mis-matched precision? That is, do you have some data in milliseconds and some in nanoseconds, but you need to find the difference between them?

[sahartz]

Hi @TonyaS  ,

The things that I do with this type of data is: 

1. Compute differences between them

2. Sort them into order

4. Read them from DBs

7. Truncate or round them to less precise time

9. Yes

[NicoleJ]

Super excited to share that with the 23.1 Release, we now support milliseconds! And even better... nanoseconds, femtoseconds, attoseconds... you have 18 extra digits of sub-second precision to work with now!! 

This feature allows you to change DateTime or Time data types to add digits of precision, and then we've added additional parsing  and calculation options in our DateTime functions as well as a new DateTimeNowPrecise function to capture the current datetime on your machine during execution. Lots of new options to support a wide variety of use cases when it comes to precision datetime. Check out the function and DateTime formatting help pages for more details.

NOTE: This does not include timezone support (yet)... but keep an eye out as we will be looking to explore that option next!

Have fun with all these little sub-seconds!! 😁

[kimeryml]

Can anyone verify what the full version that this fix was implemented in is? 

[David-Carnes]

@kimeryml

"Super excited to share that with the 23.1 Release, we now support milliseconds! And even better... nanoseconds, femtoseconds, attoseconds... you have 18 extra digits of sub-second precision to work with now!! "
 

[kimeryml]

We have Version: 2023.1.1.336 Patch: 5. Is this feature available in a version after this? We are still seeing the milliseconds issue.