# How to choose the time step to be processed in a python script
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-choose-the-time-step-to-be-processed-in-a-python-script/1969
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** python
**Created:** [May 30, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-choose-the-time-step-to-be-processed-in-a-python-script/1969 "2019-05-30T14:09:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Emanuele\_Leggio](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Emanuele_Leggio)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-choose-the-time-step-to-be-processed-in-a-python-script/1969/1 "2019-05-30T14:09:42Z")
Hi all,
I’ve written several scripts that open XMF files and processing them creates other entities that are saved to disk. I have worked with XMF files that contain only one time-step, now I would like to switch to temporal-collection but I have some difficulties. If I want to render thanks to this link: [https://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Python/Dealing\_with\_time](https://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Python/Dealing_with_time) I know how to operate, but if I do not want to render and I want to perform a post processing how can I choose the time-step on which I want to operate?
---
### Author:  [@Emanuele\_Leggio](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Emanuele_Leggio)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2019, 5:14pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-choose-the-time-step-to-be-processed-in-a-python-script/1969/2 "2019-05-30T17:14:40Z")
I answer myself: filter Force Time!
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2019, 12:41pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-choose-the-time-step-to-be-processed-in-a-python-script/1969/3 "2019-06-03T12:41:01Z")
Nice of you to report the answer. ForceTime is indeed the solution here.
Let us know if you have any other issues.