<a id="extracttimestamp"></a>

# Kafka Connect ExtractTimeStamp SMT Usage Reference for Confluent Cloud

The `ExtractTimeStamp` Single Message Transformation (SMT) is used to extract a specific time value from a field
within a Kafka record’s key or value and promote that value to the record’s official timestamp metadata.

#### NOTE
The `ExtractTimeStamp` SMT is available only for managed Sink connectors.

To apply the `ExtractTimeStamp` SMT, add the following to your connector configuration.

```bash
{
  "transforms" : "extractTimestamp",
  "transforms.extractTimestamp.type" : "com.github.jcustenborder.kafka.connect.transform.common.ExtractTimestamp$Value",
  "transforms.extractTimestamp.field.name" : "<TIMESTAMP_FIELD_NAME>"
 }
```

Update the `<TIMESTAMP_FIELD_NAME>` placeholder to the name of the field containing the record’s event time.

## Examples

The example below shows how to use `ExtractTimeStamp` SMT:

- **Input**:
  ```json
  {
     "topic" : "topic",
     "kafkaPartition" : 1,
     "value" : {
       "timestamp" : 1512164613123
     },
     "timestampType" : "NO_TIMESTAMP_TYPE",
     "offset" : 1,
     "headers" : [ ]
  }
  ```
- **Adding the SMT to your connector configuration**:

  To apply the `ExtractTimeStamp` SMT on `timestamp` field, add the following to your connector configuration:
  ```json
  {
    "transforms" : "extractTimestamp",
    "transforms.extractTimestamp.type" : "com.github.jcustenborder.kafka.connect.transform.common.ExtractTimestamp$Value",
    "transforms.extractTimestamp.field.name" : "timestamp"
  }
  ```
- **Output**:

  After the `ExtractTimeStamp` SMT applies, the value transforms as follows:
  ```json
  {
    "topic" : "topic",
    "kafkaPartition" : 1,
    "value" : {
      "timestamp" : 1512164613123
     },
    "timestamp" : 1512164613123,
    "timestampType" : "NO_TIMESTAMP_TYPE",
    "offset" : 1,
    "headers" : [ ]
  }
  ```

## Properties

| Name         | Description                                                                                                                             | Type   | Default   | Valid Values   | Importance   |
|--------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|-----------|----------------|--------------|
| `field.name` | Specifies the field in the record that contains the timestamp value. The field’s value must be a timestamp or a 64-bit integer (int64). | STRING |           |                | HIGH         |

## Predicates

Transformations can be configured with *predicates* so that the transformation
is applied only to records which satisfy a condition. You can use predicates in
a transformation chain and, when combined with the [Kafka Connect Filter (Kafka) SMT Usage Reference for Confluent Cloud](filter-ak.md#ak-filter), predicates
can conditionally filter out specific records. For details and examples, see [Predicates](filter-ak.md#predicates).