---json
{
    "description": "This how-to shows you how to generate a  sequence of date and timestamp with the column sequence generator.",
    "low_quality_page": "false",
    "page_id": "y9zojgja3xtisuadhxhb0",
    "title": "How to generate a sequence of date and timestamp"
}
---
====== Tabulify - How to generate a sequence of date and timestamp ======

===== About =====
This [[..:howto|how-to]] shows you how to generate a <icon name="clarity:timeline-line"/> [[docs:generator:sequence|sequence]] of ''date'' and ''timestamp'' with the [[docs:generator:sequence|column sequence generator]].

===== Steps =====

==== Creation of the generator file ====
To generate data, you need to create a [[docs:resource:generator|generator file]] that will describe the data to be generated.

The below [[docs:resource:generator|data resource generator]]:
  * has the [[docs:resource:name|name]] ''sequence_time--datagen.yml''
  * has the [[docs:resource:logicalname|logical name]] ''sequence_time''
  * will generate ''30'' values (''MaxRecordCount'' count)
  * has a column named ''id'' that has [[docs:generator:sequence|sequence data generator]] that:
      * starts by default at the value ''1''
      * increments by default with the value ''1''
  * has a column named ''seq_date'' with the ''date'' data type that has [[docs:generator:sequence|sequence data generator]]
      * with an ''offset'' of ''10'' days in the future from the ''start'' date (by default today)
  * has a column named ''seq_timestamp'' with the ''timestamp'' data type that has [[docs:generator:sequence|sequence data generator]]
      * starts by default at the value ''now''
      * increments by default with the value ''10000'' ms (ie 10s)

<unit>
<file yaml sequence_time--datagen.yml>
MaxRecordCount: 30
Columns:
  - name: id
    type: integer
    comment: A id column to see easily the number of values generated
    DataGenerator:
      type: sequence
  - name: seq_date
    type: date
    comment: A column with a sequence date generator
    DataGenerator:
      type: sequence
      start: 2020-11-23
      offset: 10 # the number of day in the future from the start value
      step: 2
  - name: seq_timestamp
    type: timestamp
    comment: A column with a sequence timestamp generator
    DataGenerator:
      type: sequence
      start: 2020-11-23 08:11:10
      step: 10000



</file>
</unit>
==== Printing the data ====

With the [[docs:tabli:data:print|data print command]], we can print the ''values'' generated.
<unit>
<code dos>
tabli data print sequence_time--datagen.yml@howto
</code>
<note tip>
[[docs:connection:howto|howto]] is the connection that contains the files used in the [[..:howto|HowTo's]].
</note>
<console>
id   seq_date     seq_timestamp
--   ----------   ---------------------
 1   2020-12-03   2020-11-23 08:11:10.0
 2   2020-12-05   2020-11-23 08:11:20.0
 3   2020-12-07   2020-11-23 08:11:30.0
 4   2020-12-09   2020-11-23 08:11:40.0
 5   2020-12-11   2020-11-23 08:11:50.0
 6   2020-12-13   2020-11-23 08:12:00.0
 7   2020-12-15   2020-11-23 08:12:10.0
 8   2020-12-17   2020-11-23 08:12:20.0
 9   2020-12-19   2020-11-23 08:12:30.0
10   2020-12-21   2020-11-23 08:12:40.0
11   2020-12-23   2020-11-23 08:12:50.0
12   2020-12-25   2020-11-23 08:13:00.0
13   2020-12-27   2020-11-23 08:13:10.0
14   2020-12-29   2020-11-23 08:13:20.0
15   2020-12-31   2020-11-23 08:13:30.0
16   2021-01-02   2020-11-23 08:13:40.0
17   2021-01-04   2020-11-23 08:13:50.0
18   2021-01-06   2020-11-23 08:14:00.0
19   2021-01-08   2020-11-23 08:14:10.0
20   2021-01-10   2020-11-23 08:14:20.0
21   2021-01-12   2020-11-23 08:14:30.0
22   2021-01-14   2020-11-23 08:14:40.0
23   2021-01-16   2020-11-23 08:14:50.0
24   2021-01-18   2020-11-23 08:15:00.0
25   2021-01-20   2020-11-23 08:15:10.0
26   2021-01-22   2020-11-23 08:15:20.0
27   2021-01-24   2020-11-23 08:15:30.0
28   2021-01-26   2020-11-23 08:15:40.0
29   2021-01-28   2020-11-23 08:15:50.0
30   2021-01-30   2020-11-23 08:16:00.0
</console>
</unit>
===== Next =====



Because a [[docs:resource:generator|generator]] is just a [[docs:resource:resource|data resource]], you can use it in every [[docs:op:op|data operation]].

<btn>
[[generator_data_operation|How to use a generator in a data operation ]]
</btn>