Tool
Unix Timestamp Code Snippets
Ready-to-use code for working with Unix timestamps in 8 programming languages and databases. Covers getting the current timestamp, converting to a date, and formatting output.
About these code examples
All examples use the value 1700000000 as a sample Unix timestamp in seconds, which corresponds to November 15, 2023 06:13:20 UTC. Replace this with your own timestamp. Examples that show milliseconds use 1700000000000 (the same moment × 1000).
Seconds vs milliseconds by language
The most common mistake is mixing up seconds and milliseconds. Use this quick reference:
- Milliseconds (× 1000): JavaScript Date.now(), Java System.currentTimeMillis(), C# DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.ToUnixTimeMilliseconds()
- Seconds (÷ 1000 to compare with JS): Python time.time(), PHP time(), Go time.Now().Unix(), Ruby Time.now.to_i, Rust SystemTime::now().as_secs()
- SQL: MySQL UNIX_TIMESTAMP() → seconds; PostgreSQL EXTRACT(EPOCH) → seconds with fractional part
Frequently asked questions
- Why does JavaScript use milliseconds while most languages use seconds?
- JavaScript was designed for the browser where millisecond precision is useful for animations and event timing. Most server-side languages default to seconds. Always confirm the unit when integrating with an external API.
- How do I get the Unix timestamp in JavaScript without a library?
- Use Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) for seconds or Date.now() for milliseconds. Both are built-in to every JavaScript runtime.
- How do I convert a Unix timestamp to a date in Python?
- Use datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(ts) for local time or datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(ts, tz=datetime.timezone.utc) for UTC. Both are in the standard library's datetime module.