In this guide, you will learn about Meilisearch’s approach to date and time values, how to prepare your dataset for indexing, and how to chronologically sort and filter search results.

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Preparing your documents

To filter and sort search results chronologically, your documents must have at least one field containing a UNIX timestamp. You may also use a string with a date in a format that can be sorted lexicographically, such as "2025-01-13". As an example, consider a database of video games. In this dataset, the release year is formatted as a timestamp: 
[
  {
    "id": 0,
    "title": "Return of the Obra Dinn",
    "genre": "adventure",
    "release_timestamp": 1538949600
  },
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "The Excavation of Hob's Barrow",
    "genre": "adventure",
    "release_timestamp": 1664316000
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "title": "Bayonetta 2",
    "genre": "action",
    "release_timestamp": 1411164000
  }
]
Once all documents in your dataset have a date field, index your data as usual. The example below adds a videogame dataset to a games index: 
curl \
  -x POST 'MEILISEARCH_URL/indexes/games/documents' \
  -h 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-binary @games.json

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Filtering by date

To filter search results based on their timestamp, add your document’s timestamp field to the list of filterableAttributes: 
curl \
  -X PUT 'MEILISEARCH_URL/indexes/games/settings/filterable-attributes' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '[
    "release_timestamp"
  ]'
Once you have configured filterableAttributes, you can filter search results by date. The following query only returns games released between 2018 and 2022: 
curl \
  -X POST 'MEILISEARCH_URL/indexes/games/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{
    "q": "",
    "filter": "release_timestamp >= 1514761200 AND release_timestamp < 1672527600"
  }'

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Sorting by date

To sort search results chronologically, add your document’s timestamp field to the list of sortableAttributes: 
curl \
  -X PUT 'MEILISEARCH_URL/indexes/games/settings/sortable-attributes' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '[
    "release_timestamp"
  ]'
Once you have configured sortableAttributes, you can sort your search results based on their timestamp. The following query returns all games sorted from most recent to oldest: 
curl \
  -X POST 'MEILISEARCH_URL/indexes/games/search' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{
    "q": "",
    "sort": ["release_timestamp:desc"]
  }'