DateTime format with REST and json

Question

I'm having a huge problem trying to figure out a json response from a REST endpoint I'm getting information from.

The date that is coming back looks like this 1319068800000

if I attempt to convert this value like so:

DateTime currentServerTime = DateTime.FromFileTimeUtc(1319068800000);

I get this output: 1/2/1601 12:38:26 PM ...obviously wrong :(

The REST endpoint I'm using has a cool HTML display of the json response, and their format of the same value looks like this: 2011/10/20 00:00:00 UTC

Can someone please shed some light on this for me? I'm trying to update the date through this REST API and when I send a date using this code

DateTime.Now.ToFileTimeUtc().ToString();

I get this result 129691518811163201, and when I send this to the API it bombs out saying I have an valid date. Thanks!

nhahtdh · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-10 09:56:46Z

4

Both @Bill and @Christofer are right. You still need to convert the Unix time to a DateTime, though. Here's a small function that does this: Convert a Unix timestamp to a .NET DateTime

Code quoted from the site (by Simone Chiaretta):

static DateTime ConvertFromUnixTimestamp(double timestamp)
{
    DateTime origin = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);
    return origin.AddSeconds(timestamp);
}


static double ConvertToUnixTimestamp(DateTime date)
{
    DateTime origin = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);
    TimeSpan diff = date - origin;
    return Math.Floor(diff.TotalSeconds);
}

edited Dec 10, 2012 at 9:56

nhahtdh

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answered Dec 23, 2011 at 22:23

zmbq

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1 Comment

Christofer Eliasson Over a year ago

+1 for the conversion functions, I usually use the exact same thing myself.

BillRobertson42 · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-23 22:21:13Z

3

It looks like the number of milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970 12:00 am GMT. This is the internal timestamp format that is typically used in Java.

user=> (java.util.Date. 1319068800000)
Date Wed Oct 19 20:00:00 EDT 2011

answered Dec 23, 2011 at 22:21

BillRobertson42

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2 Comments

300 baud Over a year ago

I think it is commonly referred to as Unix time or POSIX time.

BillRobertson42 Over a year ago

Number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970 is, but Java does milliseconds.

Christofer Eliasson · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-23 22:22:55Z

3

You can divide the returned number with 1000 before converting it to a DateTime. It seems to be returned as milliseconds since Unix epoch.

answered Dec 23, 2011 at 22:22

Christofer Eliasson

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