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Day name (dayname)

Owned by Juan Tomás Alonso Nieto (Deactivated)
Last updated: May 16, 2023 by Borja Moro Moreno
4 min read
[ 1 Description ] [ 2 How does it work in the search window? ] [ 3 How does it work in LINQ? ]

Description

Returns the name of the day from a given timestamp. Optionally, you can check it in a time zone different than yours and specify the language in which the day name will appear (en by default).

How does it work in the search window?

Select Create field in the search window toolbar, then select the Dayname operation.

For the Timestamp argument, you will get the day of the week considering your current timezone. Optionally, specify the language by adding the Locale argument and typing the locale format. You can also specify a different time zone adding the Time zone argument to see the day of the week in the specified time zone. When assigning a time zone different to yours, pay special attention to the original timestamp of the event, as the result may imply a day shift in the time zone specified. 

Argument

Data type

Description

Argument

Data type

Description

Timestamp mandatory

timestamp

You can either select a field with that data type or introduce it manually.

In case you want to introduce it, note that this value should be a date: Year-Month_Day Hour:Minute:Second.Millisecond (yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS) → You can skip seconds and milliseconds.

Locale

string

Applies the correct language to the day part of the date based on the locale you specify. If this argument is not added, the day will be in your own locale, which is determined by your user preferences. 

The accepted formats for the locale argument correspond to the ISO 639-1 codes, which consist of two-character codes ("en" for English, "es" for Spanish, "fr" for Frech or "de" for German), or a combination of this with the ISO 3166-2, which consists of two-character codes for specific countries ("gb" for United Kingdom, "es" for Spain...) and together they result in a four-character code specifying the subdivision ("en-us" for American English, etc.).

 It must not be confused with the ISO codes that consist of three-character codes.

As not all codes are recognized as valid locales, entering an invalid code will return the locale set in your user preferences. Check the full list of locales here.

Time zone

string

You need a valid string format the app can recognize so it returns meaningful results. If you leave the field empty or introduce a value the app cannot recognize, the default Time Zone is UTC. You can use one of the following methods:

  1. A time zone code→ UTC, PST, CST, etc. Check the full list here.

  2. The time zone database name → America/Los_Angeles, Europe/Amsterdam, Asia/Tokyo, etc. For the full list, see here.

  3. The full name of the time zone →  Universal Time Coordinated, Pacific Standard Time, Central Standard Time, etc. Check the full list here.

  4. The name of the region as it appears in Devo → Asia/Shanghai, Europe/Athens, America/New York, etc. You can check the time zone codes and region names in the Configure Timezone window in Devo.

Be aware that some of the codes coincide, as CST could mean Central Standard Time or China Standard Time. In that case, it would be advisable to avoid using codes and introduce any of the other formats mentioned.

The data type of the new field values will be string and the values shown will be the name of the day. 

Be aware that timestamps taking place during summer will be affected in the time zones in which they set the clock forward during summer. For example, Europe/Madrid (CET-Central European Time), which is UTC+1, becomes UTC+2 during summertime and thus timestamps in August will be affected when using that time zone. Be also aware that summertime differs between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Example

In the siem.logtrust.web.activity table, we want to create a field showing the day of the week of the dates in our eventdate field. To do it, we will create a new field using the Dayname operation.

The arguments needed to create the new field are:

  • Timestamp - eventdate field

Let's say we need to adapt the formatted date for French-speaking people. Click New Argument to add the locale, and again to add the Time Zone.

  • Locale: Click the pencil icon and specify the code for French, which is "fr".

  • Time Zone: Click the pencil icon and specify the time zone in France (CET or Central European Time) or any other.

Click Create field and you will see the following result:

How does it work in LINQ?

Use the operator select... as...  and add the operation syntax to create the new field. These are the valid formats for the Dayname operation:

  • dayname(timestamp)  →  Use this expression to get the day of the week corresponding to the given timestamps, according to your current time zone.

  • dayname(timestamp, locale_string) →  Use this expression to get the day of the week corresponding to the given timestamps according to your current time zone and considering a specific locale.

  • dayname(timestamp, locale_string, timezone_string)  →  Use this expression to get the day of the week corresponding to the given timestamps, according to the specified time zone and locale.

Example

You can copy the following LINQ script and try the above example on the siem.logtrust.web.activity table.

from siem.logtrust.web.activity select dayname(eventdate, "fr", "CET") as eventdate_days