We Keep Coding

Python convert timestamp to unix

I know these questions have been asked before but I'm struggling to convert a timestamp string to a unix time and figuring out whether the datetime objects are naive or aware
For example, to convert the time "2021-05-19 12:51:47" to unix:
>>> from datetime import datetime as dt
>>> dt_obj = dt.strptime("2021-05-19 12:51:47", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
>>> dt_obj
datetime.datetime(2021, 5, 19, 12, 51, 47)
is dt_obj naive or aware and how would you determine this? The methods on dt_obj such as timetz, tzinfo, and tzname don't seem to indicate anything - does that mean that dt_obj is naive?
Then to get unix:
>>> dt_obj.timestamp()
1621421507.0
However when I check 1621421507.0 on say https://www.unixtimestamp.com then it tells me that gmt for the above is Wed May 19 2021 10:51:47 GMT+0000, ie 2 hours behind the original timestamp?

since Python's datetime treats naive datetime as local time by default, you need to set the time zone (tzinfo attribute):
from datetime import datetime, timezone
# assuming "2021-05-19 12:51:47" represents UTC:
dt_obj = datetime.fromisoformat("2021-05-19 12:51:47").replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc)
Or, as #Wolf suggested, instead of setting the tzinfo attribute explicitly, you can also modify the input string by adding "+00:00" which is parsed to UTC;
dt_obj = datetime.fromisoformat("2021-05-19 12:51:47" + "+00:00")
In any case, the result
dt_obj.timestamp()
# 1621428707.0
now converts as expected on https://www.unixtimestamp.com/:

As long as you don't specify the timezone when calling strptime, you will produce naive datetime objects. You may pass time zone information via %z format specifier and +00:00 added to the textual date-time representation to get a timezone aware datetime object:
from datetime import datetime
dt_str = "2021-05-19 12:51:47"
print(dt_str)
dt_obj = datetime.strptime(dt_str+"+00:00", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S%z")
print(dt_obj)
print(dt_obj.timestamp())
The of above script is this:
2021-05-19 12:51:47
2021-05-19 12:51:47+00:00
1621428707.0

datetime.timestamp()
Naive datetime instances are assumed to represent local time and this method relies on the platform C mktime() function to perform the conversion.
So using this does automatically apply yours machine current timezone, following recipe is given to calculate timestamp from naive datetime without influence of timezone:
timestamp = (dt - datetime(1970, 1, 1)) / timedelta(seconds=1)

How to get UTC epoch value from a local timestamp

I need to convert my timestamp into an epoch value. I found that my system timezone is set to CET, which is also used by my my-sql database.
I tried this:
os.environ['TZ']='UTC'
epoch = int(time.mktime(time.strptime('2017-02-22 17:04:06', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')))
print(epoch)
#Output: 1487779446 -> not the same compared to 1487779446000 (= '2017-02-22 17:04:06')
print(time.strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S', time.gmtime(epoch/1000.)))
#Output: 01/18/1970 05:16:19 -> Not Correct!
# Timestamp: '2017-02-22 17:04:06'
print(time.strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S', time.gmtime(1487779446000/1000.)))
#Output: 02/22/2017 16:04:06 -> Correct!
I tried this with CET too, same result. I don't understand why I am getting different values.

A good way to get seconds since epoch is to do it explicitly. This function converts the timestring to a naive datetime, makes the datetime timezone aware, and then subtracts a datetime which is epoch at UTC.
Code:
import datetime as dt
from pytz import timezone
def convert_timestamp_to_utc_epoch(ts, tz_info):
# convert timestamp string to naive datetime
naive = dt.datetime.strptime(ts, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
# assign proper timezone to datetime
aware = tz_info.localize(naive)
# get a datetime that is equal to epoch in UTC
utc_at_epoch = timezone('UTC').localize(dt.datetime(1970,1,1))
# return the number of seconds since epoch
return (aware - utc_at_epoch).total_seconds()
Test Code:
Using the example from question:
print('CET:',
convert_timestamp_to_utc_epoch('2017-02-22 17:04:06', timezone('CET')))
Results:
CET: 1487779446.0
Get an arbitrary local timezone:
If you are not sure what timezone the local machine is using, the tzlocal library can be used like:
from tzlocal import get_localzone
local_tz = get_localzone()
print('Local:',
convert_timestamp_to_utc_epoch('2017-02-22 17:04:06', local_tz))
print('Pacific:',
convert_timestamp_to_utc_epoch('2017-02-22 17:04:06', timezone('US/Pacific')))
Results:
Local: 1487811846.0
Pacific: 1487811846.0

Python: Converting string to timestamp with microseconds

I would like to convert string date format to timestamp with microseconds
I try the following but not giving expected result:
"""input string date -> 2014-08-01 04:41:52,117
expected result -> 1410748201.117"""
import time
import datetime
myDate = "2014-08-01 04:41:52,117"
timestamp = time.mktime(datetime.datetime.strptime(myDate, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S,%f").timetuple())
print timestamp
> 1410748201.0
Where did the milliseconds go?

There is no slot for the microseconds component in a time tuple:
>>> import time
>>> import datetime
>>> myDate = "2014-08-01 04:41:52,117"
>>> datetime.datetime.strptime(myDate, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S,%f").timetuple()
time.struct_time(tm_year=2014, tm_mon=8, tm_mday=1, tm_hour=4, tm_min=41, tm_sec=52, tm_wday=4, tm_yday=213, tm_isdst=-1)
You'll have to add those manually:
>>> dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(myDate, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S,%f")
>>> time.mktime(dt.timetuple()) + (dt.microsecond / 1000000.0)
1406864512.117
The other method you could follow is to produce a timedelta() object relative to the epoch, then get the timestamp with the timedelta.total_seconds() method:
epoch = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(0)
(dt - epoch).total_seconds()
The use of a local time epoch is quite deliberate since you have a naive (not timezone-aware) datetime value. This method can be inaccurate based on the history of your local timezone however, see J.F. Sebastian's comment. You'd have to convert the naive datetime value to a timezone-aware datetime value first using your local timezone before subtracting a timezone-aware epoch.
As such, it is easier to stick to the timetuple() + microseconds approach.
Demo:
>>> dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(myDate, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S,%f")
>>> epoch = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(0)
>>> (dt - epoch).total_seconds()
1406864512.117

In Python 3.4 and later you can use
timestamp = datetime.datetime.strptime(myDate, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S,%f").timestamp()
This doesn't require importing the time module. It also uses less steps so it should be faster. For older versions of python the other provided answers are probably your best option.
However, the resulting timestamp will interpret myDate in local time, rather than UTC, which may cause issues if myDate was given in UTC

Where did the milliseconds go?
It is the easy part. .timetuple() call drops them. You could add them back using .microsecond attribute. The datetime.timestamp() method from the standard library works that way for naive datetime objects:
def timestamp(self):
"Return POSIX timestamp as float"
if self._tzinfo is None:
return _time.mktime((self.year, self.month, self.day,
self.hour, self.minute, self.second,
-1, -1, -1)) + self.microsecond / 1e6
else:
return (self - _EPOCH).total_seconds()
It is enough if possible ~1 hour errors could be ignored in your case. I assume that you want microseconds and therefore you can't ignore ~1 hour time errors silently.
To convert the local time given as a string to the POSIX timestamp correctly is a complex task in general. You could convert the local time to UTC and then get the timestamp from UTC time.
There are two main issues:
local time may be non-existent or ambiguous e.g. during DST transitions the same time may occur twice
UTC offset for the local timezone may be different in the past and therefore a naive: local time minus epoch in local time formula may fail
Both can be solved using the tz database (pytz module in Python):
from datetime import datetime
import pytz # $ pip install pytz
from tzlocal import get_localzone # $ pip install tzlocal
tz = get_localzone() # get pytz timezone corresponding to the local timezone
naive_d = datetime.strptime(myDate, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S,%f")
# a) raise exception for non-existent or ambiguous times
d = tz.localize(naive_d, is_dst=None)
## b) assume standard time, adjust non-existent times
#d = tz.normalize(tz.localize(naive_d, is_dst=False))
## c) assume DST is in effect, adjust non-existent times
#d = tz.normalize(tz.localize(naive_d, is_dst=True))
timestamp = d - datetime(1970, 1, 1, tzinfo=pytz.utc)
The result is timestamp -- a timedelta object, you can convert it to seconds, milliseconds, etc.
Also different systems may behave differently around/during leap seconds. Most application can ignore that they exist.
In general, it might be simpler to store POSIX timestamps in addition to the local time instead of trying to guess it from the local time.

python: convert year/month/day/hour/min/second to # seconds since Jan 1 1970

I know how to do it in C and Java, but I don't know a quick way of converting year/month/day/hour/min/second to the # of seconds since the Jan 1 1970 epoch.
Can someone help me?
So far I've figured out how to create a datetime object but I can't seem to get the elapsed # seconds since the epoch.
(edit: my question is the inverse of this other one: Python: Seconds since epoch to relative date)

Use timetuple or utctimetuple method to get time tuple and convert it to timestamp using time.mktime
>>> import datetime
>>> dt = datetime.datetime(2011, 12, 13, 10, 23)
>>> import time
>>> time.mktime(dt.timetuple())
1323793380.0
There is a nice bug related to it http://bugs.python.org/issue2736, this is interesting read and anybody trying to convert to timestamp should read this. According to that thread correct way is
timestamp = (dt - datetime(1970, 1, 1)) / timedelta(seconds=1)

You can use datetime.datetime(1970, 1, 1) as a reference and get the total amount of seconds from a datetime.timedelta object as follows:
from datetime import datetime
delta = your_date - datetime(1970, 1, 1)
delta.total_seconds()

import calendar
calendar.timegm(datetime_object.utctimetuple())

These lines can return a float number representing seconds since epoch.
import time
time.time()

To convert a datetime object (broken-downtime time: year/month/day/hour/min/second) to seconds since the Epoch (POSIX time):
seconds_since_epoch = datetime_object.timestamp()
Note: POSIX Epoch is "00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970".
If datetime_object has no timezone info then .timestamp() method uses a local timezone.
datetime.timestamp() method is introduced in Python 3.3; for code that works on older Python versions, see Converting datetime.date to UTC timestamp in Python.

Convert UTC datetime string to local datetime

I've never had to convert time to and from UTC. Recently had a request to have my app be timezone aware, and I've been running myself in circles. Lots of information on converting local time to UTC, which I found fairly elementary (maybe I'm doing that wrong as well), but I can not find any information on easily converting the UTC time to the end-users timezone.
In a nutshell, and android app sends me (appengine app) data and within that data is a timestamp. To store that timestamp to utc time I am using:
datetime.utcfromtimestamp(timestamp)
That seems to be working. When my app stores the data, it is being store as 5 hours ahead (I am EST -5)
The data is being stored on appengine's BigTable, and when retrieved it comes out as a string like so:
"2011-01-21 02:37:21"
How do I convert this string to a DateTime in the users correct time zone?
Also, what is the recommended storage for a users timezone information? (How do you typically store tz info ie: "-5:00" or "EST" etc etc ?) I'm sure the answer to my first question might contain a parameter the answers the second.

If you don't want to provide your own tzinfo objects, check out the python-dateutil library. It provides tzinfo implementations on top of a zoneinfo (Olson) database such that you can refer to time zone rules by a somewhat canonical name.
from datetime import datetime
from dateutil import tz
# METHOD 1: Hardcode zones:
from_zone = tz.gettz('UTC')
to_zone = tz.gettz('America/New_York')
# METHOD 2: Auto-detect zones:
from_zone = tz.tzutc()
to_zone = tz.tzlocal()
# utc = datetime.utcnow()
utc = datetime.strptime('2011-01-21 02:37:21', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
# Tell the datetime object that it's in UTC time zone since
# datetime objects are 'naive' by default
utc = utc.replace(tzinfo=from_zone)
# Convert time zone
central = utc.astimezone(to_zone)
Edit Expanded example to show strptime usage
Edit 2 Fixed API usage to show better entry point method
Edit 3 Included auto-detect methods for timezones (Yarin)

Here's a resilient method that doesn't depend on any external libraries:
from datetime import datetime
import time
def datetime_from_utc_to_local(utc_datetime):
now_timestamp = time.time()
offset = datetime.fromtimestamp(now_timestamp) - datetime.utcfromtimestamp(now_timestamp)
return utc_datetime + offset
This avoids the timing issues in DelboyJay's example. And the lesser timing issues in Erik van Oosten's amendment.
As an interesting footnote, the timezone offset computed above can differ from the following seemingly equivalent expression, probably due to daylight savings rule changes:
offset = datetime.fromtimestamp(0) - datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0) # NO!
Update: This snippet has the weakness of using the UTC offset of the present time, which may differ from the UTC offset of the input datetime. See comments on this answer for another solution.
To get around the different times, grab the epoch time from the time passed in. Here's what I do:
def utc2local(utc):
epoch = time.mktime(utc.timetuple())
offset = datetime.fromtimestamp(epoch) - datetime.utcfromtimestamp(epoch)
return utc + offset

See the datetime documentation on tzinfo objects. You have to implement the timezones you want to support yourself. The are examples at the bottom of the documentation.
Here's a simple example:
from datetime import datetime,tzinfo,timedelta
class Zone(tzinfo):
def __init__(self,offset,isdst,name):
self.offset = offset
self.isdst = isdst
self.name = name
def utcoffset(self, dt):
return timedelta(hours=self.offset) + self.dst(dt)
def dst(self, dt):
return timedelta(hours=1) if self.isdst else timedelta(0)
def tzname(self,dt):
return self.name
GMT = Zone(0,False,'GMT')
EST = Zone(-5,False,'EST')
print datetime.utcnow().strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %Z')
print datetime.now(GMT).strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %Z')
print datetime.now(EST).strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %Z')
t = datetime.strptime('2011-01-21 02:37:21','%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
t = t.replace(tzinfo=GMT)
print t
print t.astimezone(EST)
Output
01/22/2011 21:52:09
01/22/2011 21:52:09 GMT
01/22/2011 16:52:09 EST
2011-01-21 02:37:21+00:00
2011-01-20 21:37:21-05:00a

If you want to get the correct result even for the time that corresponds to an ambiguous local time (e.g., during a DST transition) and/or the local utc offset is different at different times in your local time zone then use pytz timezones:
#!/usr/bin/env python
from datetime import datetime
import pytz # $ pip install pytz
import tzlocal # $ pip install tzlocal
local_timezone = tzlocal.get_localzone() # get pytz tzinfo
utc_time = datetime.strptime("2011-01-21 02:37:21", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
local_time = utc_time.replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc).astimezone(local_timezone)

This answer should be helpful if you don't want to use any other modules besides datetime.
datetime.utcfromtimestamp(timestamp) returns a naive datetime object (not an aware one). Aware ones are timezone aware, and naive are not. You want an aware one if you want to convert between timezones (e.g. between UTC and local time).
If you aren't the one instantiating the date to start with, but you can still create a naive datetime object in UTC time, you might want to try this Python 3.x code to convert it:
import datetime
d=datetime.datetime.strptime("2011-01-21 02:37:21", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S") #Get your naive datetime object
d=d.replace(tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc) #Convert it to an aware datetime object in UTC time.
d=d.astimezone() #Convert it to your local timezone (still aware)
print(d.strftime("%d %b %Y (%I:%M:%S:%f %p) %Z")) #Print it with a directive of choice
Be careful not to mistakenly assume that if your timezone is currently MDT that daylight savings doesn't work with the above code since it prints MST. You'll note that if you change the month to August, it'll print MDT.
Another easy way to get an aware datetime object (also in Python 3.x) is to create it with a timezone specified to start with. Here's an example, using UTC:
import datetime, sys
aware_utc_dt_obj=datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc) #create an aware datetime object
dt_obj_local=aware_utc_dt_obj.astimezone() #convert it to local time
#The following section is just code for a directive I made that I liked.
if sys.platform=="win32":
directive="%#d %b %Y (%#I:%M:%S:%f %p) %Z"
else:
directive="%-d %b %Y (%-I:%M:%S:%f %p) %Z"
print(dt_obj_local.strftime(directive))
If you use Python 2.x, you'll probably have to subclass datetime.tzinfo and use that to help you create an aware datetime object, since datetime.timezone doesn't exist in Python 2.x.

If using Django, you can use the timezone.localtime method:
from django.utils import timezone
date
# datetime.datetime(2014, 8, 1, 20, 15, 0, 513000, tzinfo=<UTC>)
timezone.localtime(date)
# datetime.datetime(2014, 8, 1, 16, 15, 0, 513000, tzinfo=<DstTzInfo 'America/New_York' EDT-1 day, 20:00:00 DST>)

The following worked for me in a Cloud environment for US west:
import datetime
import pytz
#set the timezone
tzInfo = pytz.timezone('America/Los_Angeles')
dt = datetime.datetime.now(tz=tzInfo)
print(dt)

Consolidating the answer from franksands into a convenient method.
import calendar
import datetime
def to_local_datetime(utc_dt):
"""
convert from utc datetime to a locally aware datetime according to the host timezone
:param utc_dt: utc datetime
:return: local timezone datetime
"""
return datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(calendar.timegm(utc_dt.timetuple()))

You can use arrow
from datetime import datetime
import arrow
now = datetime.utcnow()
print(arrow.get(now).to('local').format())
# '2018-04-04 15:59:24+02:00'
you can feed arrow.get() with anything. timestamp, iso string etc

You can use calendar.timegm to convert your time to seconds since Unix epoch and time.localtime to convert back:
import calendar
import time
time_tuple = time.strptime("2011-01-21 02:37:21", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
t = calendar.timegm(time_tuple)
print time.ctime(t)
Gives Fri Jan 21 05:37:21 2011 (because I'm in UTC+03:00 timezone).

import datetime
def utc_str_to_local_str(utc_str: str, utc_format: str, local_format: str):
"""
:param utc_str: UTC time string
:param utc_format: format of UTC time string
:param local_format: format of local time string
:return: local time string
"""
temp1 = datetime.datetime.strptime(utc_str, utc_format)
temp2 = temp1.replace(tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)
local_time = temp2.astimezone()
return local_time.strftime(local_format)
utc_tz_example_str = '2018-10-17T00:00:00.111Z'
utc_fmt = '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ'
local_fmt = '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+08:00'
# call my function here
local_tz_str = utc_str_to_local_str(utc_tz_example_str, utc_fmt, local_fmt)
print(local_tz_str) # 2018-10-17T08:00:00+08:00
When I input utc_tz_example_str = 2018-10-17T00:00:00.111Z, （UTC +00:00）
then I will get local_tz_str = 2018-10-17T08:00:00+08:00 （My target timezone +08:00）
parameter utc_format is a format determined by your specific utc_tz_example_str.
parameter local_fmt is the final desired format.
In my case, my desired format is %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+08:00 ( +08:00 timezone). You should construct the format you want.

This worked for me:
from django.utils import timezone
from datetime import timedelta,datetime
ist_time = timezone.now() + timedelta(hours=5,minutes=30)
#second method
ist_time = datetime.now() + timedelta(hours=5,minutes=30)

I traditionally defer this to the frontend -- send times from the backend as timestamps or some other datetime format in UTC, then let the client figure out the timezone offset and render this data in the proper timezone.
For a webapp, this is pretty easy to do in javascript -- you can figure out the browser's timezone offset pretty easily using builtin methods and then render the data from the backend properly.

From the answer here, you can use the time module to convert from utc to the local time set in your computer:
utc_time = time.strptime("2018-12-13T10:32:00.000", "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f")
utc_seconds = calendar.timegm(utc_time)
local_time = time.localtime(utc_seconds)

Here is a quick and dirty version that uses the local systems settings to work out the time difference. NOTE: This will not work if you need to convert to a timezone that your current system is not running in. I have tested this with UK settings under BST timezone
from datetime import datetime
def ConvertP4DateTimeToLocal(timestampValue):
assert isinstance(timestampValue, int)
# get the UTC time from the timestamp integer value.
d = datetime.utcfromtimestamp( timestampValue )
# calculate time difference from utcnow and the local system time reported by OS
offset = datetime.now() - datetime.utcnow()
# Add offset to UTC time and return it
return d + offset

Short and simple:
from datetime import datetime
t = "2011-01-21 02:37:21"
datetime.fromisoformat(t) + (datetime.now() - datetime.utcnow())