Epoch Date/Time Function
Description
Epoch -- the Unix epoch (or Unix time or POSIX time or Unix timestamp) -- is defined as the number of seconds that have elapsed since January 1, 1970 (midnight UTC/GMT), not counting leap seconds (ISO 8601: 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z). Many software systems use epoch as the storage format for a date/timestamp. Since epoch stamp is based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it is affected both by Daylight Saving Time (DST) and time zone changes.
Several LogicNets parts support the epoch format as well as the standard LogicNets time format of YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS. The standard LogicNets date/time storage format does not indicate time zones or DST. Therefore, we recommend storing timestamps in UTC/GMT time-zone or as epoch.
Some parts support date/time conversion (e.g. stamp stored as epoch is displayed in a human-readable format). In these cases, you must provide the time zone and DST. Note: LogicNets currently supports two time zones: GMT/UTC and server/local (this is the time zone of the server on which LogicNets is running).
The following LogicNets parts work with date/time stamps:
| Part | Description | Input Formats | Output Formats |
| create_epoch_date_time | This converts between YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS and epoch formats. | Epoch | LN Format | Epoch | LN Format |
| set_current_date_time | This retrieves the current date/time stamp. | - | Epoch | LN Format |
| date_calculation | This adds/subtracts days/hours/minutes/seconds from the provided stamp. | LN Format | LN Format |
| format_variable | This formats and displays a value in a human-readable format that you can set when the data type is "date_time". | YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS | Epoch | LN Format | Display Format |
| date_difference | This calculates the difference between two different date/time stamps. | YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS | Epoch | Epoch | YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS |
| db_grid3 | This displays the contents of a data table. | Epoch | LN Format | LN Format | Display Format |