# Converting UNIX timestamp in python script

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective\
**Created:** [July 20, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139 "2022-07-20T18:07:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mjohnson0238](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@mjohnson0238](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mjohnson0238)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/1 "2022-07-20T18:07:43Z")

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Im needing to convert the time to a more readable format?

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/a/f/af7b109bb7dd123caa76f3788b7276121854768f.png)

can someone link me to a thread that helps explain this? or walk me through it?

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/6/c/6cc2ed1b19c262fb9e2575d92d543198e77f9abe.png)

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/2 "2022-07-20T18:10:36Z")

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[https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/system.date.fromMillis](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/system.date.fromMillis)

Though, I wonder if just setting the column type on the Perspective table to Date would be enough to get it to coerce for you… not sure.

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**Author:** ![zacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ea5d25/32.png) [@zacht](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/zacht)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/3 "2022-07-20T18:12:47Z")

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@Kevin.Herron beat me to it, but

Are you displaying it in a table? Setting the column render type to Date will force it to respect whatever you supply as dateFormat.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mjohnson0238](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@mjohnson0238](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mjohnson0238)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/4 "2022-07-20T18:25:30Z")

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the table in question is being referenced by another table in json format for a comparison of sorts. so when the time column is populated its in that string looking format and just setting the time column to the correct date format (like usually would work) doesn’t convert it.

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**Author:** ![craigb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@craigb](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/craigb)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/5 "2022-07-20T18:46:21Z")

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may help, may not…

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/0/f/0fc2e7b88be49fd73c8c8ff2df42cb89e5eeb81a.png)

```auto
from datetime import datetime
ts = int('1658342356')
		
print(datetime.utcfromtimestamp(ts).strftime('%d-%m-%y %H:%M:%S'))

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JordanCClark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jordancclark/32/83362_2.png) [@JordanCClark](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JordanCClark)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/6 "2022-07-20T18:49:24Z")

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Out of curiosity, what does the data itself look like in the table? From a sample table I did up:  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/8/6/86f29157055a7756159480882c1729a278dd8c0f.png)

Note the t\_stamp is in orange. If it’s green in your data, then it’s coming in from the query as a string.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lrose](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/lrose/32/62724_2.png) [@lrose](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/lrose)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 7:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/7 "2022-07-20T19:05:21Z")

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Or use the system.date.\* functions

```auto
ts = int('1658342356')
print system.date.fromMillis(ts)

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mjohnson0238](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@mjohnson0238](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mjohnson0238)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/converting-unix-timestamp-in-python-script/62139/8 "2022-07-20T19:07:36Z")

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here is what the data looks like:  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/6/8/68f605c6101890c8eebb89376cdf967a3bad8cc6.png)