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What is Epoch time
- Epoch Time is a universal time standard. Epoch time is used by computers and other devices all over the world to represent time. This makes it easy to compare and synchronize times across different systems.
- Epoch time is simply a number representing the number of seconds that have passed since a specific point in time, the Unix epoch. This makes it easy to perform mathematical operations on time and to calculate the difference between two times.
- It is a flexible time standard. Epoch time can be used to represent time at different resolutions, from milliseconds to years. This makes it suitable for a wide range of applications.
- It is a scalable time standard. Epoch time can be used to represent times in the past, present, and future. This makes it suitable for applications that need to store and process large amounts of time data.
- The Unix epoch is the date and time 00:00:00 UTC on Thursday, January 1, 1970.
- The first year of the Unix epoch was a leap year, but leap seconds are not counted in Unix time. This means that Epoch time is slightly ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
- The maximum value of a 32-bit signed integer is 2,147,483,647. This means that a 32-bit system will overflow its time counter on January 19, 2038, at 03:14:07 UTC. This is known as the Year 2038 problem.
Unix Timestamp to DateTime Examples
Unix Timestamp / Epoch Time | To Human Date Time |
---|---|
0 | January 1st, 1970 00:00:00 |
86400 | January 2nd, 1970 05:30:00 |
946684799.429 | December 31st, 1999 23:59:59 |
1000000000 | September 9, 2001 1:46:40 |
1111111111 | March 18, 2005 01:58:31 |
1234567890 | February 9, 2009 23:31:30 |
1672552080 | January 1st, 2023 00:00:00 |
2147472000.853 | January 19th, 2032 00:00:00 |
2222222222 | June 2nd, 2040 03:57:02 |
9876543210 | December 22nd, 2282 20:13:30 |
253412079800.587 | April 23rd, 10000 04:23:20 |
How to Convert Epoch time to a readable date timestamp format
- Divide the Epoch time by 86400, which is the number of seconds in a day. This will give you the number of days since the Unix epoch.
- Add 1 to the number of days since the Unix epoch. This is because the Unix epoch starts at day 0, while most calendars start at day 1.
- Convert the number of days since the Unix epoch to a date using a calendar conversion algorithm.
- Convert the fractional part of the Epoch time to seconds, minutes, and hours.
- Combine the date and time components into a readable date and time format.
Frequently Asked Questions on Epoch to Date Conversion
Epoch in general means the start of an important event.
In computing terms, it refers to starting time on Jan 1, 1970 UTC which is taken as time '0' and ticking away every 1sec.
This was used by the operating system of Unix to compute total time elapsed since Jan 1, 1970.
Other operating systems use different start dates.
Unix or Posix timestamp is the total time in seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
The operating system determines the computer date and time by counting no of ticks of 1 second from epoch.
Apple - Jan 1 , 1904 with 1s tick.
Windows - Jan 1, 1601 with 100ns tick.
OpenVMS - November 17, 1858 with 100ns tick.
Unix and Posix - Jan 1, 1970 with 1s tick.
32 bit systems will not be able to convert and store UNIX epoch dates properly this date onwards.
The equivalent epoch time of 2147472000 seconds will cause an overflow in 32 bit systems.
No issues in 64 bit systems and they will be fine for longer time.
This is specific to unix time.
Use the inbuilt date function and get time and divide by 1000.
example in javascript - (new Date().getTime()/1000.0).
Compute date difference from the epoch date to current date.
Yes, By detault, Epoch is represented in Univeral timezone which is the Greenwich mean time.
It can be converted to any timezone.