convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 04 May 2022 16:18:08 GMT

[quote userid="26843" url="~/discussions/f/general/24494/convert-a-unix-timestamp-to-datetime/94597#94597"](don't watch if you can avoid)[/quote]

lol, it's a good show though!

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Dimitris Soulovaris — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:39:54 GMT

I was also looking for that function tbh although I haven't used it before.

And I was wondering how is possible that there isn't available a basic function like this so far.

Regarding the conversion, the ePoch timestamp to Appian dateTime conversion is not so accurate. If you check the minutes on the hour are not the same as the current hour.

The conversion to date is fine but if you need the response date to be precise, then you need a different formula.

PS. this is a nice to have function from Appian.

Edit. there is a function: fromUnixTimestamp() but the result is the same as the solution we gave so far.

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:20:22 GMT

Good point, I didn't check that far. That's probably why I didn't recognize it (my dev environment is one i inherited with a bunch of plug-ins already installed which I didn't vet myself).

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Richard Michaelis — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:10:46 GMT

Use the following plugin:
https://community.appian.com/b/appmarket/posts/date-and-time-utilities
It has two new functions:

toUnixTimestamp - Returns the Unix timestamp from datetime
fromUnixTimestamp - Returns a Date and Time value by converting a Unix timestamp.

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Richard Michaelis — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:08:25 GMT

sure "addSeconds() " is an official appian function and no plugin function?
Edit: aaah found it: https://community.appian.com/b/appmarket/posts/date-and-time-utilities

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

davel001150 — Wed, 04 May 2022 14:37:25 GMT

Lets see if we can work out the math ourselves.

So unix timestamp is seconds since 1970. Appian timestamp is DAYS since 2035 (so it's actually a negative number that keeps diminishing for now).

Perhaps what you do is convert seconds to days, so Unix timestamp / ( 3600 times 24). That gives you days since 1970 and Appian has days since 2035. Simple addition or subtraction should get you from there.

You can do lots of things to calculate it. One time, I said, "Duh, 525600 minutes!", and my friend sitting next to me said, "Did you just use the RENT method?" I did. I remembered that song from RENT (don't watch if you can avoid).

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 04 May 2022 14:36:20 GMT

I was going to suggest the intervalds() function, but upon testing it appears to not like large values for seconds.

That said, the seconds() function appears to work here, too, if it helps anyone simplify things slightly.

datetime(1970, 1, 1, 00, 00) + second() * 1651670870

Edit to add: I never realized there's an addSeconds() function too. Maybe it's newer? (edit: it's from a plug-in, thanks Richard)

addseconds(datetime(1970, 1, 1, 00, 00), 1651670870)

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Richard Michaelis — Wed, 04 May 2022 14:24:10 GMT

Hello Ernesto,
sounds stupid but you caculate it
Unix time is basically a time difference.
This count starts at the Unix Epoch on January 1st, 1970 at UTC

We are around at unix timestamp of 1651674100 currently

So 1651674100/3600 = is the amount of hours
A Years is 1651674100/ 31556926 is the amount of years
https://www.unixtimestamp.com/

perhaps somebody has a suitable formula available. but basically you calculate what your number means as time difference

RE: convert a Unix timestamp to DateTime

Dimitris Soulovaris — Wed, 04 May 2022 14:20:41 GMT

Since a Unix timestamp is the number of seconds from 01/01/1970 till now, you can try something like this:

(1651670870 / 86400) + datetime(1970, 01, 01, 00, 00)