# Mutate choosing unexpected field

**URL:** https://forums.losant.com/t/mutate-choosing-unexpected-field/2524
**Category:** Help
**Tags:** workflow
**Created:** [January 9, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://forums.losant.com/t/mutate-choosing-unexpected-field/2524 "2020-01-09T07:58:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Bryan\_Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Bryan\_Chase](https://forums.losant.com/u/Bryan_Chase)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://forums.losant.com/t/mutate-choosing-unexpected-field/2524/1 "2020-01-09T07:58:03Z")

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Why does my mutate function seem to choose the “time\_ns” value to do the date conversion? I want it to chose the “storedLastTimeDate2” value.

I chose SET A NEW VALUE and:  
{{formatDate working.storedFirstTime\_ns.convert ‘ddd D MMM YYYY hh:mm:ss a’}}

I expected to see:  
Thu 9 Jan 2020 03:01:21 AM (I believe this corresponds to 1578538881000)

but instead see:  
Thu 9 Jan 2020 03:04:50 AM (I believe this corresponds to 1578539090000)

It’s a fairly complicated workflow, not sure how to attach more.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/getstructure/original/2X/9/99c578cae42bba7cff0199eb659e26be606a1314.png)

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### Author: ![JuliaKempf](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.losant.com/juliakempf/32/2446_2.png) [@JuliaKempf](https://forums.losant.com/u/JuliaKempf)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://forums.losant.com/t/mutate-choosing-unexpected-field/2524/2 "2020-01-09T14:20:50Z")

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Hi @Bryan_Chase,

Your timestamp is located on your payload at `working.storedFirstTime_ns`, but you are referencing `working.storedFirstTime_ns.convert` is this intentional or is there a value missing?

Thanks!  
Julia

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Bryan\_Chase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Bryan\_Chase](https://forums.losant.com/u/Bryan_Chase)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://forums.losant.com/t/mutate-choosing-unexpected-field/2524/3 "2020-01-09T18:09:42Z")

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Oh I thought that was required for the syntax of formatDate. I took out the convert and it worked better. Although I had 2 rules set in a different mutate and found it worked accurately when I split them up but not when the 2 rules were together.

I think it’s working now, thanks!