How to Use the Python time mktime() Method

09/18/2021

Contents

In this article, you will learn how to use the Python time mktime() method.

Python time mktime() Method

The mktime() method in Python is used to convert a struct_time object representing a date and time to a Unix timestamp, which is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, at 00:00:00 UTC. Here’s how you can use the mktime() method:

Import the time module:

import time

Create a struct_time object representing the date and time you want to convert. You can create a struct_time object using the strptime() method from the datetime module. For example, to create a struct_time object representing January 1, 2022, at 12:00:00 AM:

import datetime

dt = datetime.datetime(2022, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0)
struct_time = dt.timetuple()

Call the mktime() method and pass the struct_time object as an argument:

timestamp = time.mktime(struct_time)

The timestamp variable now contains the Unix timestamp representing January 1, 2022, at 12:00:00 AM. You can then use this timestamp for further processing, such as converting it to a human-readable date and time using the strftime() method.

Note that the mktime() method assumes that the struct_time object represents a local time, not UTC time. If you want to convert a UTC time to a Unix timestamp, you should use the calendar.timegm() method instead of mktime().

#Python