Python Epoch time- unix timestamp with example

Python Epoch time- unix timestamp with example

This tutorial explains about Current Epoch Or unix timestamp in Python.

Epoch TIme is several seconds completed from 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970 to the Current DateTime.

It contains a long number that represents seconds

How to print Current Epoch Timestamp in Python

Many ways we can get Unix timestamps in Python.

Listing out two ways.

  • time library
  • datetime module

The time module provides utility functions on Date and time

time.time() returns a floating number that indicates the number of seconds since Unix time. datetime.now().timestamp() returns the time in epoch time

Here is an example

from time import time
from datetime import datetime

unixTime = time()
print(unixTime);

epochSeconds = datetime.now().timestamp()
print(epochSeconds);

Output:

1697082092.5620618
1697082092.562061

How to Convert Unix Timestamp into readable utc and local date and time

We can convert epoch time to date time format using datetime library

  • import datetime library into a cod

    e

  • First get epoch timestamp using datetime.now().timestamp() that returns long value

  • datetime.fromtimestamp() takes epoch time

  • use strftime to format the time into date and time, You can customize the format as per readable format.

  • This returns the time in the local timezone format

Here is an example

from datetime import datetime
epochSeconds = datetime.now().timestamp()
time = datetime.fromtimestamp(epochSeconds)
print(time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')); # Year-Month-Date i.e 2023-10-12
print(time.strftime('%H-%M-%S')); # Hour-Minute-Seconds i.e 09-23-13
print(time); # 2023-10-12 09:23:13.264851
print(epochSeconds);

Output:

2023-10-12
09-23-13
2023-10-12 09:23:13.264851

Convert unix timestamp human readable UTC date and time The same code but pass timezone.utc to fromtimestamp function

from datetime import datetime,timezone
epochSeconds = datetime.now().timestamp()
time = datetime.fromtimestamp(
    epochSeconds,timezone.utc)
print(time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')); # Year-Month-Date
print(time.strftime('%H-%M-%S')); # Hour-Minute-Seconds
print(time);
print(datetime.now());

Output:

2023-10-12
03-59-46
2023-10-12 03:59:46.879310+00:00

How to parse Current Datetime into timestamp

datetime.now() returns the current date and time information timestamp() returns the current unix timestamp.

You can construct the datetime object by passing year, month, day, hour, minutes, and call timestamp(), outputs epoch seconds.

This is an example of calculating epoch time for a given date and time

from datetime import datetime
## Current Date and time
currentDate=datetime.now();
print(currentDate); # 2023-10-12 09:32:09.808697

epochSeconds = currentDate.timestamp();
print(epochSeconds); # 1697083329.808697

# Given Date and time
specificDate=datetime(2022,11,11,0,0)
print(specificDate); # 2022-11-11 00:00:00
epochSeconds1 = specificDate.timestamp();
print(epochSeconds1); # 1668105000.0