How to Convert Unix Timestamps in Every Programming Language (2026 Edition)

Mar 15, 2026

15 min read

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Every language handles timestamps slightly differently. Some count in seconds, others in milliseconds. Some have dedicated datetime types, others use raw integers. This guide gives you modern, idiomatic, copy-paste-ready code for the three operations every developer needs: getting the current epoch, converting epoch to date, and converting date to epoch.

All examples use the current recommended APIs for each language — no deprecated functions, no legacy patterns. If you're still using SimpleDateFormat in Java or time.gmtime() in Python, it's time to upgrade.

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JavaScript / TypeScript

JavaScript's Date object works in milliseconds, not seconds. The most common mistake is forgetting to multiply or divide by 1,000.

// Get current epoch (seconds)
const epoch = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);

// Epoch → Date
const date = new Date(1771387200 * 1000);
console.log(date.toISOString()); // "2026-02-18T12:00:00.000Z"

// Date → Epoch
const epoch2 = Math.floor(new Date('2026-02-18T12:00:00Z').getTime() / 1000);

Python

Python 3 has excellent timezone-aware datetime support. Always use timezone-aware objects with timezone.utc — naive datetimes are a common source of bugs.

from datetime import datetime, timezone
import time

# Get current epoch
epoch = int(time.time())

# Epoch → Date
dt = datetime.fromtimestamp(1771387200, tz=timezone.utc)
print(dt.isoformat())  # "2026-02-18T12:00:00+00:00"

# Date → Epoch
dt = datetime(2026, 2, 18, 12, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
epoch = int(dt.timestamp())

Go

Go's time package is one of the best-designed time APIs in any language. The unusual reference time "Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 MST 2006" is used for format strings instead of strftime-style codes.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"
)

func main() {
    // Get current epoch
    epoch := time.Now().Unix()

    // Epoch → Date
    t := time.Unix(1771387200, 0).UTC()
    fmt.Println(t.Format(time.RFC3339)) // "2026-02-18T12:00:00Z"

    // Date → Epoch
    t2 := time.Date(2026, 2, 18, 12, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
    fmt.Println(t2.Unix())
}

Rust

use std::time::{SystemTime, UNIX_EPOCH, Duration};

fn main() {
    // Get current epoch
    let epoch = SystemTime::now()
        .duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH)
        .unwrap()
        .as_secs();

    // Epoch → SystemTime
    let time = UNIX_EPOCH + Duration::from_secs(1771387200);

    // For human-readable formatting, use the chrono crate:
    // use chrono::{DateTime, Utc, NaiveDateTime};
    // let dt = DateTime::<Utc>::from_timestamp(1771387200, 0).unwrap();
}

Java

Use java.time.Instant (Java 8+). Do not use Date, Calendar, or SimpleDateFormat — they are legacy APIs with timezone bugs and thread safety issues.

import java.time.Instant;
import java.time.ZoneOffset;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;

// Get current epoch
long epoch = Instant.now().getEpochSecond();

// Epoch → Date
Instant instant = Instant.ofEpochSecond(1771387200);
System.out.println(instant); // "2026-02-18T12:00:00Z"

// Date → Epoch
long epoch2 = LocalDateTime.of(2026, 2, 18, 12, 0, 0)
    .toEpochSecond(ZoneOffset.UTC);

C#

// Get current epoch
long epoch = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.ToUnixTimeSeconds();

// Epoch → Date
DateTimeOffset dt = DateTimeOffset.FromUnixTimeSeconds(1771387200);
Console.WriteLine(dt.ToString("o")); // "2026-02-18T12:00:00.0000000+00:00"

// Date → Epoch
long epoch2 = new DateTimeOffset(2026, 2, 18, 12, 0, 0, TimeSpan.Zero)
    .ToUnixTimeSeconds();

PHP

<?php
// Get current epoch
$epoch = time();

// Epoch → Date
$date = date('c', 1771387200); // "2026-02-18T12:00:00+00:00"

// Date → Epoch
$epoch = strtotime('2026-02-18T12:00:00Z');

// Or with DateTime:
$dt = new DateTime('2026-02-18T12:00:00Z');
$epoch = $dt->getTimestamp();

Bash

# Get current epoch
epoch=$(date +%s)

# Epoch → Date
date -d @1771387200 --iso-8601=seconds  # Linux
date -r 1771387200 +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S  # macOS

# Date → Epoch
date -d "2026-02-18T12:00:00Z" +%s  # Linux
date -j -f "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" "2026-02-18T12:00:00" +%s  # macOS

SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)

-- MySQL
SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP();                          -- Current epoch
SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(1771387200);                  -- Epoch → Date
SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2026-02-18 12:00:00');      -- Date → Epoch

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT extract(epoch FROM now());                   -- Current epoch
SELECT to_timestamp(1771387200);                    -- Epoch → Date
SELECT extract(epoch FROM '2026-02-18 12:00:00'::timestamp); -- Date → Epoch

-- SQLite
SELECT strftime('%s', 'now');                       -- Current epoch
SELECT datetime(1771387200, 'unixepoch');           -- Epoch → Date
SELECT strftime('%s', '2026-02-18 12:00:00');      -- Date → Epoch

For all 20+ supported languages with auto-filled values from your active conversion, use the code snippet generator:

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How to Convert Unix Timestamps in Every Programming Language (2026 Edition)

JavaScript / TypeScript

Python

Go

Rust

Java

C#

PHP

Bash

SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)

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