Timestamp Converter
Articles, guides, and in-depth tips for the Timestamp Converter — everything you need to get the most out of it.
✦ AI-powered — understands natural language
ISO 8601, Unix Timestamps, and the "Local Time in Database" Bug — A Practical Format Selection Guide
Unix Timestamps: Why 1970, What Happens Before It, and Why 2038 Still Matters for Some Systems
Unix timestamp 0 is January 1, 1970 — chosen somewhat arbitrarily by early Unix developers and now inherited by virtually every language, database, and API. Here's why negative timestamps (pre-1970) work in some systems and break in others, the Y2K38 problem's detailed mechanics (which embedded systems are still at risk), and why JavaScript's 13-digit millisecond timestamps cause a constant source of "date showing as 1970" bugs.
Y2K, Y2K38, and Excel's 1900 Leap Year Bug: The Dates That Break Software
Y2K cost $300–600 billion to mitigate. The Unix 2038 problem will overflow signed 32-bit timestamps on 19 January 2038. Excel has counted 29 February 1900 as a real date since the 1980s. Here's the structural causes of each date bug and which ones are still ticking.
ISO 8601 and Date Handling Mistakes: The Bugs That Surface Months Later
"06/07/2024" means different dates in the US and UK. ISO 8601 solves this unambiguously. Here's the standard, common date handling mistakes (adding months with timedelta, DST in date arithmetic), storing UTC in databases, and the MySQL 2038 timestamp problem.
Unix Timestamps and Timezone Bugs: What Every Developer Should Know
Timezone bugs cause more production incidents than most developers realise. Here's how Unix timestamps actually work, why "store UTC, convert at display" solves the problem, and the specific bugs that catch teams off guard.
Timestamp Converter — Unix Time to Date & Date to Timestamp
Learn what Unix timestamps are, why they're used everywhere in software, how to convert them to human-readable dates, and how to avoid the seconds vs. milliseconds confusion.
