Set datetime to Unix Timestamp in Python (2 Examples)

This post explains how transform a datetime object to a unix timestamp in Python.

Loading datetime Module & Creating Example Data

To load the datetime module, you can use the code below:

import datetime

Then we generate the following datetime object:

datetime_x = datetime.datetime.now()
print(datetime_x)
# 2022-03-22 10:42:31.784553

Example 1: Set datetime to Unix Timestamp Using timestamp() Function

To get the right result, have to multiply the output of the timestamp function by 1000:

timestamp_x_1 = datetime_x.timestamp() * 1000
print(timestamp_x_1)
# 1647942151784.553

Example 2: Set datetime to Unix Timestamp Using timetuple() & mktime() Functions

In this case we use the timetuple() and mktime() functions to transform our datetime to unix timestamp.

For this we first have to load the time module to Python:

import time

Then we can apply those functions to convert our data. Consider the Python code and its output:

timestamp_x_2 = time.mktime(datetime_x.timetuple())
print(timestamp_x_2)
# 1647942151.0

The previous timestamp represents our date and time in seconds, not in microseconds as in the first example.

Further Resources

Please find some related tutorials below.

• Set datetime to Different Time Zone in Python (3 Examples)
• Set datetime Object to Date Only String in Python (3 Examples)
• Transform datetime Object to Date & Vice Versa in Python (2 Examples)
• Transform datetime Object to Hours Minutes or Seconds in Python (3 Examples)
• Modify datetime Format in pandas DataFrame in Python (2 Examples)
• All Python Programming Tutorials

Note: This article was created in collaboration with Matthias Bäuerlen. Matthias is a programmer who helps to create tutorials on the Python programming language. You might find more info about Matthias and his other articles on his profile page.