Timestamp

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

A timestamp is a sequence of characters, denoting the date and/or time at which a certain event occurred. A timestamp is the time at which an event is recorded by a computer, not the time of the event itself. In many cases, the difference may be inconsequential: the time at which an event is recorded by a timestamp (e.g., entered into a log file) should be very, very close to the time of the occurrence of the event recorded.

This data is usually presented in a consistent format, allowing for easy comparison of two different records and tracking progress over time; the practice of recording timestamps in a consistent manner along with the actual data is called timestamping.

Timestamps are typically used for logging events, in which case each event in a log is marked with a timestamp. In filesystems, timestamp may mean the stored date/time of creation or modification of a file.

Examples of timestamps:

2005-10-30 T 10:45 UTC
2007-11-09 T 11:20 UTC 
Sat Jul 23 02:16:57 2005
1256953732

Standardization

ISO 8601 standardizes the representation of dates and times. These standard representations are often used to construct timestamp values.

Other meanings

Look up timestamp in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Timestamp can also refer to:

• A time code (in networking or video technology)
• Unix time, the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970
• ICMP Timestamp
• A digitally signed timestamp whose signer vouches for the existence of the signed document or content at the time given as part of the digital signature
• The modification or access time of a file or directory in a computer file system or database