title: Custom date format for loading data into BigQuery, using bq?
body: <p>I'm uploading a CSV file to Google BigQuery using <code>bq load</code> on the command line. It's working great, but I've got a question about converting timestamps on the fly. </p>
  
  <p>In my source data, my timestamps are formatted as <code>YYYYMM</code>, e.g. <code>201303</code> meaning March 2013. </p>
  
  <p>However, Google BigQuery's <a href="https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/preparing-data-for-bigquery?hl=en#datatypes" rel="nofollow">timestamp fields</a> are documented as only supporting Unix timestamps and <code>YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS</code> format strings. So unsurprisingly, when I load the data, these fields don't convert to the correct date. </p>
  
  <p>Is there any way I can convey to BigQuery that these are <code>YYYYMM</code> strings?</p>
  
  <p>If not I can convert them before loading, but I have about 1TB of source data, so I'm keen to avoid that if possible :)</p>