UNIX_TIMESTAMP in SQL Server

Question

I need to create a function in SQL Server 2008 that will mimic mysql's UNIX_TIMESTAMP().

Answer 1

If you're not bothered about dates before 1970, or millisecond precision, just do:

-- SQL Server
SELECT DATEDIFF(s, '1970-01-01 00:00:00', DateField)

Almost as simple as MySQL's built-in function:

-- MySQL
SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP(DateField);

Other languages (Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc): How to get the current epoch time in ...

---

If you need millisecond precision (SQL Server 2016/13.x and later):

SELECT DATEDIFF_BIG(ms, '1970-01-01 00:00:00', DateField)

Answer 2

Try this post: https://web.archive.org/web/20141216081938/http://skinn3r.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/t-sql-datetime-to-unix-timestamp/

CREATE FUNCTION UNIX_TIMESTAMP (
@ctimestamp datetime
)
RETURNS integer
AS 
BEGIN
  /* Function body */
  declare @return integer

  SELECT @return = DATEDIFF(SECOND,{d '1970-01-01'}, @ctimestamp)

  return @return
END

or this post:

http://mysql.databases.aspfaq.com/how-do-i-convert-a-sql-server-datetime-value-to-a-unix-timestamp.html

code is as follows:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.DTtoUnixTS 
( 
    @dt DATETIME 
) 
RETURNS BIGINT 
AS 
BEGIN 
    DECLARE @diff BIGINT 
    IF @dt >= '20380119' 
    BEGIN 
        SET @diff = CONVERT(BIGINT, DATEDIFF(S, '19700101', '20380119')) 
            + CONVERT(BIGINT, DATEDIFF(S, '20380119', @dt)) 
    END 
    ELSE 
        SET @diff = DATEDIFF(S, '19700101', @dt) 
    RETURN @diff 
END

Sample usage:

SELECT dbo.DTtoUnixTS(GETDATE()) 
-- or 
SELECT UnixTimestamp = dbo.DTtoUnixTS(someColumn) 
    FROM someTable

Answer 3

Sql Server 2016 and later have a DATEDIFF_BIG function that can be used to get the milliseconds.

SELECT DATEDIFF_BIG(millisecond, '1970-01-01 00:00:00', GETUTCDATE())

Create a function

CREATE FUNCTION UNIX_TIMESTAMP()
    RETURNS BIGINT
AS
BEGIN
    RETURN DATEDIFF_BIG(millisecond, '1970-01-01 00:00:00', GETUTCDATE())
END

And execute it

SELECT dbo.UNIX_TIMESTAMP()

Answer 4

For timestamp with milliseconds result I found this solution from here https://gist.github.com/rsim/d11652a8336137832df9:

SELECT (cast(DATEDIFF(s, '1970-01-01', GETUTCDATE()) as bigint)*1000+datepart(ms,getutcdate()))

Answer from @Rafe didn't work for me correctly (MSSQL 20212) - I got 9 seconds of difference.

Answer 5

I often need a unix timestamp with millisecond precision. The following will give you the current unixtime as FLOAT; wrap per answers above to get a function or convert arbitrary strings.

The DATETIME datatype on SQL Server is only good to 3 msec, so I have different examples for SQL Server 2005 and 2008+. Sadly there is no DATEDIFF2 function, so various tricks are required to avoid DATEDIFF integer overflow even with 2008+. (I can't believe they introduced a whole new DATETIME2 datatype without fixing this.)

For regular old DATETIME, I just use a sleazy cast to float, which returns (floating point) number of days since 1900.

Now I know at this point, you are thinking WHAT ABOUT LEAP SECONDS?!?! Neither Windows time nor unixtime really believe in leap seconds: a day is always 1.00000 days long to SQL Server, and 86400 seconds long to unixtime. This wikipedia article discusses how unixtime behaves during leap seconds; Windows I believe just views leap seconds like any other clock error. So while there is no systematic drift between the two systems when a leap second occurs, they will not agree at the sub-second level during and immediately following a leap second.

-- the right way, for sql server 2008 and greater
declare @unixepoch2 datetime2;
declare @now2 Datetime2;
declare @days int;
declare @millisec int;
declare @today datetime2;
set @unixepoch2 = '1970-01-01 00:00:00.0000';
set @now2 = SYSUTCDATETIME();
set @days = DATEDIFF(DAY,@unixepoch2,@now2);
set @today = DATEADD(DAY,@days,@unixepoch2);
set @millisec = DATEDIFF(MILLISECOND,@today,@now2);
select (CAST (@days as float) * 86400) + (CAST(@millisec as float ) / 1000)
  as UnixTimeFloatSQL2008

-- Note datetimes are only accurate to 3 msec, so this is less precise 
-- than above, but works on any edition of SQL Server.
declare @sqlepoch datetime;
declare @unixepoch datetime;
declare @offset float;
set @sqlepoch = '1900-01-01 00:00:00';
set @unixepoch = '1970-01-01 00:00:00';
set @offset = cast (@sqlepoch as float) - cast (@unixepoch as float);
select ( cast (GetUTCDate() as float) + @offset) * 86400 
  as UnixTimeFloatSQL2005;

-- Future developers may hate you, but you can put the offset in
-- as a const because it isn't going to change. 
declare @sql_to_unix_epoch_in_days float;
set @sql_to_unix_epoch_in_days = 25567.0;
select ( cast (GetUTCDate() as float) - @sql_to_unix_epoch_in_days) * 86400.0 
  as UnixTimeFloatSQL2005MagicNumber;

FLOATs actually default to 8-byte doubles on SQL Server, and therefore superior to 32-bit INT for many use cases. (For example, they won't roll over in 2038.)

Answer 6

Necromancing.
The ODBC-way:

DECLARE @unix_timestamp varchar(20)
-- SET @unix_timestamp = CAST({fn timestampdiff(SQL_TSI_SECOND,{d '1970-01-01'}, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)} AS varchar(20)) 

IF CURRENT_TIMESTAMP >= '20380119' 
BEGIN 
    SET @unix_timestamp = CAST
    (
        CAST
        (
            {fn timestampdiff(SQL_TSI_SECOND,{d '1970-01-01'}, {d '2038-01-19'})} 
            AS bigint
        )  
        + 
        CAST
        (
            {fn timestampdiff(SQL_TSI_SECOND,{d '2038-01-19'}, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)}
            AS bigint
        ) 
    AS varchar(20)
    ) 
END 
ELSE 
    SET @unix_timestamp = CAST({fn timestampdiff(SQL_TSI_SECOND,{d '1970-01-01'}, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)} AS varchar(20))

PRINT @unix_timestamp

Answer 7

Here's a single-line solution without declaring any function or variable:

SELECT CAST(CAST(GETUTCDATE()-'1970-01-01' AS decimal(38,10))*86400000.5 as bigint)

Answer 8

If you have to deal with previous versions of SQL Server (<2016) and you only care for positive timestamps, I post here the solution I found for very distant dates (so you can get rid of the IF from @rkosegi's answer.

What I did was first calculating the difference in days and then adding the difference in seconds left.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[UNIX_TIMESTAMP]
( 
    @inputDate DATETIME 
)
RETURNS BIGINT 
AS 
BEGIN
    DECLARE @differenceInDays BIGINT, @result BIGINT;
    SET @differenceInDays = DATEDIFF(DAY, '19700101', @inputDate)
    IF @differenceInDays >= 0
        SET @result = (@differenceInDays * 86400) + DATEDIFF(SECOND, DATEADD(DAY, 0, DATEDIFF(DAY, 0, @inputDate)), @inputDate)
    ELSE
        SET @result = 0
    RETURN @result
END

Answer 9

When called to Scalar-valued Functions can use following syntax

Function Script :

USE [Database]
GO

/****** Object:  UserDefinedFunction [dbo].[UNIX_TIMESTAMP]  ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[UNIX_TIMESTAMP] (
@ctimestamp datetime
)
RETURNS integer
AS
BEGIN
  /* Function body */
  declare @return integer

  SELECT @return = DATEDIFF(SECOND,{d '1970-01-01'}, @ctimestamp)

  return @return
END 
GO

Call Function :

SELECT dbo.UNIX_TIMESTAMP(GETDATE());