How can I convert a datetime object to milliseconds since epoch (unix time) in Python?

Question

I have a Python datetime object that I want to convert to unix time, or seconds/milliseconds since the 1970 epoch.

How do I do this?

Answer 1

>>> import datetime
>>> import time
>>> import calendar

>>> #your datetime object
>>> now = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> now
datetime.datetime(2013, 3, 19, 13, 0, 9, 351812)

>>> #use datetime module's timetuple method to get a `time.struct_time` object.[1]
>>> tt = datetime.datetime.timetuple(now)
>>> tt
time.struct_time(tm_year=2013, tm_mon=3, tm_mday=19, tm_hour=13, tm_min=0, tm_sec=9,     tm_wday=1, tm_yday=78, tm_isdst=-1)

>>> #If your datetime object is in utc you do this way. [2](see the first table on docs)
>>> sec_epoch_utc = calendar.timegm(tt) * 1000
>>> sec_epoch_utc
1363698009

>>> #If your datetime object is in local timeformat you do this way
>>> sec_epoch_loc = time.mktime(tt) * 1000
>>> sec_epoch_loc
1363678209.0

[1] http://docs.python.org/2/library/datetime.html#datetime.date.timetuple

[2] http://docs.python.org/2/library/time.html