Unix Timestamp to Date Converter
Convert Unix Epoch timestamps (seconds or milliseconds) to human-readable dates (ISO 8601, RFC 2822) with automatic timezone detection.
About
Backend systems and databases store time as an integer counting seconds elapsed since the Unix Epoch (January 1, 1970). Debugging logs often requires translating these integers into human-readable formats. This tool parses timestamps in both seconds (10 digits) and milliseconds (13 digits), handling the conversion to UTC and Local time simultaneously. It addresses the friction of manual timezone adjustments during incident response or log analysis.
Accuracy depends on the distinction between seconds and milliseconds. Legacy systems typically use seconds, while modern JavaScript or Java environments use milliseconds. Misinterpreting the scale results in dates ranging from 1970 to the year 50,000. This utility applies heuristics to detect the format automatically based on digit count.
Formulas
The Unix timestamp represents the number of seconds that have elapsed since the epoch. To convert a timestamp t in seconds to a date structure, the system often requires milliseconds.
Current time is calculated by the difference between now and the epoch:
Reference Data
| Event | Timestamp (Seconds) | Date (UTC) |
|---|---|---|
| Unix Epoch Start | 0 | 1970-01-01 |
| First Billion Seconds | 1000000000 | 2001-09-09 |
| Currently (Approx) | 1700000000 | 2023-11-14 |
| Year 2038 Problem | 2147483647 | 2038-01-19 |
| Sample Future Date | 2500000000 | 2049-03-22 |
| Apophis Approach | 2944132000 | 2063-04-13 |
| 100 Years Post-Epoch | 3155673600 | 2070-01-01 |
| Use of 32-bit Integer | LIMIT | Max 2038 |