# Exporting TIMESTAMP fields to Excel

**URL:** <https://forums.toadworld.com/t/exporting-timestamp-fields-to-excel/50582>\
**Category:** Toad for Oracle & DevOps Toolkit\
**Created:** [August 7, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/exporting-timestamp-fields-to-excel/50582 "2020-08-07T10:26:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![benoit.coppens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d2c977/32.png) [@benoit.coppens](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/benoit.coppens)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/exporting-timestamp-fields-to-excel/50582/1 "2020-08-07T10:26:22Z")

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Hi,  
I'm using Toad 13.3  
How can I configure Toad so that data grids containing TIMESTAMP fields are exported to Excel as a date (or in fact as a number) and not as a "General" text field?  
Thanks,  
Benoit

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**Author:** ![JohnDorlon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/quest/user_avatar/forums.toadworld.com/johndorlon/32/9997_2.png) [@JohnDorlon](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/JohnDorlon)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 12:44pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/exporting-timestamp-fields-to-excel/50582/2 "2020-08-07T12:44:59Z")

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Excel doesn't have a timestamp format, so we send those values as string.  
If you want them to appear as date in excel, you should cast to date in your SQL.

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**Author:** ![benoit.coppens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d2c977/32.png) [@benoit.coppens](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/benoit.coppens)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 7:43am UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/exporting-timestamp-fields-to-excel/50582/3 "2020-08-10T07:43:39Z")

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Hi John,  
Thanks for the trick: it works!  
But what do you mean by "Excel doesn't have a timestamp format"?  
See attached screenshot - for me this is a valid Excel timestamp (i.e. not a string value).

 ![2020-08-10_09-42-47](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/quest/original/2X/0/0a07813e5b405e3291a3aee4ca7e80169801f514.jpeg)  
Thanks,  
Benoit

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**Author:** ![JohnDorlon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/quest/user_avatar/forums.toadworld.com/johndorlon/32/9997_2.png) [@JohnDorlon](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/JohnDorlon)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 12:14pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/exporting-timestamp-fields-to-excel/50582/4 "2020-08-10T12:14:45Z")

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That's date, not timestamp. There is no fractional second information, nor time zone information.

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**Author:** ![benoit.coppens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d2c977/32.png) [@benoit.coppens](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/benoit.coppens)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/exporting-timestamp-fields-to-excel/50582/5 "2020-08-10T12:45:32Z")

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Ok. Indeed not a full timestamp. Would be nice anyway to be able to export an Oracle timestamp to a custom date/time value in Excel. Will add the request to the Idea Pond.