Timestamp Converter

About Unix Timestamps

A Unix timestamp is a way to track time as a running total of seconds or milliseconds since January 1st, 1970 at UTC. This date is known as the "Unix Epoch." Unix timestamps are used extensively in programming, databases, and system logs because they provide a consistent way to represent time across different systems and timezones.

Why Use Timestamps?

• Consistency: Same moment in time regardless of timezone
• Simplicity: Just a single number representing time
• Precision: Can represent time down to milliseconds
• Compatibility: Supported by virtually all programming languages
• Storage: Efficient storage compared to date strings

Common Use Cases

• API development and testing
• Database timestamp fields
• Log file analysis
• Scheduling and cron jobs
• Performance monitoring
• Data synchronization

Timestamp Formats

Programming Examples

// Get current timestamp
const timestamp = Date.now(); // milliseconds
const timestampSeconds = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000); // seconds

// Convert timestamp to date
const date = new Date(timestamp);

import time
from datetime import datetime

# Get current timestamp
timestamp = int(time.time())  # seconds

# Convert timestamp to datetime
dt = datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp)