docs-v2/content/flux/v0.x/stdlib/influxdata/influxdb/sample/aligntonow.md

title	description	menu	weight	related	introduced
sample.alignToNow() function	`sample.alignToNow()` shifts time values in input data to align the chronological last point to _now_.	flux_0_x_ref name parent sample.alignToNow sample-pkg	301	/influxdb/v2.0/reference/sample-data/	0.132.0

sample.alignToNow() shifts time values in input data to align the chronological last point to now. Input data must have a _time column.

{{% note %}} When writing static historical sample datasets to InfluxDB Cloud, use sample.alignToNow() to avoid losing sample data with timestamps outside of the retention period associated with your InfluxDB Cloud account. {{% /note %}}

Examples

Align sample data timestamps to the current time

import "influxdata/influxdb/sample"

option now = () => 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

data = sample.data(set: "birdMigration")
    |> filter(fn: (r) => r._field == "lon" and r.s2_cell_id == "471ed2c" and r.id == "91916A")
    |> tail(n: 3)

data
    |> sample.alignToNow()

{{% expand "View input and output" %}}

Input data

_time	_measurement	id	s2_cell_id	_field	_value
2019-09-19T15:00:00Z	migration	91916A	471ed2c	lon	21.10333
2019-09-22T09:00:00Z	migration	91916A	471ed2c	lon	21.084
2019-09-22T15:00:00Z	migration	91916A	471ed2c	lon	21.10317

Output data

_time	_measurement	id	s2_cell_id	_field	_value
2020-12-29T00:00:00Z	migration	91916A	471ed2c	lon	21.10333
2020-12-31T18:00:00Z	migration	91916A	471ed2c	lon	21.084
2021-01-01T00:00:00Z	migration	91916A	471ed2c	lon	21.10317
{{% /expand %}}