From timestamps to datetimes

Timestamps are the representation of a date in the number of seconds from a specific moment. Usually, as the value that a computer can represent is limited in size, that is normally taken from January 1st, 1970.

If you ever received a value such as 1521588268 as a datetime representation, you might be wondering how that can be converted into an actual datetime.

How to do it...

Most recent Python versions introduced a method to quickly convert datetimes back and forth from timestamps:

>>> import datetime
>>> ts = 1521588268

>>> d = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(ts)
>>> print(repr(d))
datetime.datetime(2018, 3, 20, 23, 24, 28)

>>> newts = d.timestamp()
>>> print(newts)
1521584668.0

There's more...

As pointed out in the recipe introduction, there is a limit to how big a number can be for a computer. For that reason, it's important to note that while datetime.datetime can represent practically any date, a timestamp...