MySQL UNIX_TIMESTAMP() Function

In MySQL, the UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function converts the specified date/datetime to a UNIX timestamp value.

The UNIX timestamp is a integer value representing the number of seconds since the UTC time 1970-01-01 00:00:00.

`UNIX_TIMESTAMP()` Syntax

Here is the syntax of MySQL UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function:

UNIX_TIMESTAMP()
UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date_or_datetime)

Parameters

date_or_datetime: Optional. The default value is NOW().

Return value

The MySQL UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function return the number of seconds since the UTC time 1970-01-01 00:00:00 for the given date or datetime.

If the argument is NULL, the UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function will return NULL.

`UNIX_TIMESTAMP()` Examples

Here are some examples of the UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function.

Example 1

Calculates the UNIT timestamp of the present moment.

SELECT
    UNIX_TIMESTAMP(),
    UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW());

+------------------+-----------------------+
| UNIX_TIMESTAMP() | UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW()) |
+------------------+-----------------------+
|       1650098881 |            1650098881 |
+------------------+-----------------------+

Except for NOW() , you can also use SYSDATE(), LOCALTIME(), or LOCALTIMESTAMP().

Example 2

To get the UNIT timestamp of 2022-02-28 10:10:10.

SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2022-02-28 10:10:10');

+---------------------------------------+
| UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2022-02-28 10:10:10') |
+---------------------------------------+
|                            1646014210 |
+---------------------------------------+

UNIX_TIMESTAMP() Syntax