When parseDate operator processes a null value it generates a "Oops! Looks like we encountered a problem. Try running your query again"

Problem:

I am running this query and I am trying to parse timestamps like "2019-01-21T21:49:48Z" and

_sourceCategory=abcd/prod/* 
| json auto 
| parseDate(%"my.date_time", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'") as start_time

I get the following error :

The following errors were reported when executing your search: Oops! Looks like we encountered a problem. Try running your query again. If the problem persists, please contact Support. [Error Code: T5JAS-Y1NWS-1DKGV] (500)

Cause:

Presently the Sumo Logic UI reports the "Oops!Looks like we encountered a problem...." instead of providing an actionable error message that the query failed because it processed a null or empty value in the time field in above example "my.date_time"

Answer:

Please add a line to the query that filters out empty values of the field that parseDate is processing. Refer to the  isNull, isEmpty, isBlank operators that can take care of this. Following is a couple of examples

_sourceCategory=abc/prod/*
| json auto
| where !isEmpty(%"my.date_time")
| parseDate(%"my.date_time", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss") as start_time

_sourceCategory=abc/prod/*
| json auto
| where !isBlank(%"my.date_time")
| parseDate(%"grpc.start_time", "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss") as start_time