Timestamp Converter

Convert between Unix timestamps, ISO dates, and human-readable formats.

When to Use

• Converting API response timestamps to readable dates
• Working with log files containing Unix timestamps
• Converting between timezones for international users
• Calculating time differences between dates
• Batch converting timestamps in data processing
• Formatting dates for different locales

Quick Start

Convert Unix Timestamp

from datetime import datetime, timezone

def unix_to_datetime(timestamp, tz=None):
    """
    Convert Unix timestamp to datetime
    
    Args:
        timestamp: Unix timestamp (seconds or milliseconds)
        tz: Target timezone (default: UTC)
    """
    # Auto-detect seconds vs milliseconds
    if timestamp > 1e10:
        timestamp = timestamp / 1000
    
    dt = datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp, tz=timezone.utc)
    
    if tz:
        dt = dt.astimezone(tz)
    
    return dt

# Usage
unix_to_datetime(1704067200)
# Result: 2024-01-01 00:00:00+00:00

unix_to_datetime(1704067200000)  # Milliseconds
# Result: 2024-01-01 00:00:00+00:00

Format Conversion

def format_timestamp(timestamp, fmt='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'):
    """Convert timestamp to custom format"""
    dt = unix_to_datetime(timestamp)
    return dt.strftime(fmt)

# Common formats
format_timestamp(1704067200, '%Y-%m-%d')           # 2024-01-01
format_timestamp(1704067200, '%d/%m/%Y')           # 01/01/2024
format_timestamp(1704067200, '%B %d, %Y')          # January 01, 2024
format_timestamp(1704067200, '%I:%M %p')           # 12:00 AM

ISO 8601 Conversion

from datetime import datetime

def parse_iso8601(iso_string):
    """Parse ISO 8601 string to datetime"""
    # Handle various ISO formats
    iso_string = iso_string.replace('Z', '+00:00')
    return datetime.fromisoformat(iso_string)

def to_iso8601(dt, include_ms=False):
    """Convert datetime to ISO 8601 string"""
    if include_ms:
        return dt.isoformat()
    return dt.strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z')

# Usage
parse_iso8601('2024-01-01T00:00:00Z')
to_iso8601(datetime.now())

Timezone Conversion

from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo

def convert_timezone(timestamp, from_tz='UTC', to_tz='America/New_York'):
    """Convert timestamp between timezones"""
    dt = unix_to_datetime(timestamp)
    
    # Set source timezone
    if from_tz != 'UTC':
        dt = dt.replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo(from_tz))
    
    # Convert to target timezone
    return dt.astimezone(ZoneInfo(to_tz))

# Usage
convert_timezone(1704067200, 'UTC', 'Asia/Shanghai')
# Result: 2024-01-01 08:00:00+08:00

Date Arithmetic

from datetime import timedelta

def add_time(timestamp, days=0, hours=0, minutes=0):
    """Add time to timestamp"""
    dt = unix_to_datetime(timestamp)
    delta = timedelta(days=days, hours=hours, minutes=minutes)
    return dt + delta

def time_diff(timestamp1, timestamp2):
    """Calculate difference between two timestamps"""
    dt1 = unix_to_datetime(timestamp1)
    dt2 = unix_to_datetime(timestamp2)
    diff = dt2 - dt1
    
    return {
        'days': diff.days,
        'seconds': diff.seconds,
        'total_seconds': diff.total_seconds(),
        'hours': diff.total_seconds() / 3600
    }

# Usage
add_time(1704067200, days=7)  # Add 1 week
time_diff(1704067200, 1704672000)  # Difference between timestamps

Batch Conversion

def batch_convert(timestamps, target_format='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'):
    """Convert multiple timestamps at once"""
    results = []
    for ts in timestamps:
        try:
            formatted = format_timestamp(ts, target_format)
            results.append({'timestamp': ts, 'formatted': formatted})
        except Exception as e:
            results.append({'timestamp': ts, 'error': str(e)})
    return results

# Usage
timestamps = [1704067200, 1704672000, 1705276800]
batch_convert(timestamps)

Common Formats Reference

Format	Example	Use Case
Unix (seconds)	1704067200	APIs, databases
Unix (ms)	1704067200000	JavaScript
ISO 8601	2024-01-01T00:00:00Z	APIs, logs
RFC 2822	Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT	Email headers
SQL	2024-01-01 00:00:00	SQL databases

Dependencies

pip install pytz

Or use Python 3.9+ built-in zoneinfo:

from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo