Tuesday, October 12, 2010

UNIX Date Format for SQL Server

UNIX date times are most often stored as seconds from midnight, January 1, 1970. If you are running into a date format that looks like, for example, "1286790650" or "1141541097", a ten digit number, it is most likely a UNIX time stamp. (also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time ).

Here's how to convert on SQL Server:
dateadd(ss, 1234567890, '1970-01-01')
where 12345678790 is your date given in UNIX time stamp format.

This is also why 11:31 pm (in the UK) was so exciting on February 13, 2009.

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