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Python Dates and Times

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How Computers Work With Time

3:20 with Rachel Johnson

Discover how computers perceive time. Explore UTC time, the global standard, and the Unix timestamp, a computer's unique way of telling time. Get ready to dive into the fundamentals of time in the digital realm!

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    [MUSIC] 0:00
    Hi, I'm Rachel, a Python teacher here at Treehouse. 0:09
    If you're a programmer, you're going to have to deal with dates or 0:14
    times eventually, and sometimes, even at the same time. 0:17
    Now, computers think about time a little differently than we do as humans, so 0:22
    it's our job as programmers to have an understanding of that before we start 0:27
    creating programs that deal with date or time. 0:32
    There are two main methods that computers use to keep time. 0:36
    And you'll likely encounter both in your journey as a programmer depending on 0:40
    what you do. 0:44
    These are UTC time and the Unix timestamp. 0:46
    UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time and 0:51
    it's basically the global standard for timekeeping. 0:54
    You may even know it as Greenwich Mean Time. 0:59
    Imagine it as the official time that everyone agrees on. 1:03
    You know how you've often seen your time zone written as GMT+9 or GMT- 7? 1:06
    Well, this is GMT+0, or GMT or simply UTC. 1:14
    It's often used as a reference point because it doesn't change with daylight 1:22
    saving or time zone. 1:26
    Programmers often default to UTC to avoid issues with time zones and 1:29
    UTC is used if you schedule cron jobs. 1:34
    Some other use cases are in aviation, weather forecasts, and 1:38
    even in the International Space Station. 1:42
    The Unix timestamp is a computer's way of telling time. 1:46
    Picture a starting point, called the Unix epoch, 1:52
    set on January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. 1:56
    A Unix timestamp is just the count of seconds that have passed since that epoch. 2:02
    This timestamp idea helps computers handle time consistently, 2:10
    no matter where they are in the world. 2:14
    So when you see a Unix timestamp like 1627892167 2:18
    it means that that's how many seconds have elapsed since 2:23
    that specific point in time, January 1 1970. 2:28
    Some use cases are storing timestamps in MySQL or 2:33
    PostgreSQL, file timestamps in Unix systems, 2:38
    timestamps in archive file formats like RAR and TAR, and 2:42
    Discord's own dynamic timestamp uses the Unix timestamp. 2:47
    Now, all this seems well and good, but it would be a little tricky to have 2:54
    to convert our thinking into Unix timestamps or 2:59
    UTC every time we worked with dates or times. 3:02
    And what if you just wanted to work with a time of day or 3:06
    a day without worrying about the time? 3:10
    Luckily, Python comes with a set of really solid tools for dealing with dates and 3:13
    times. 3:18

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