How to convert Datetime to Unix timestamp in R

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    date <- as.POSIXct("2013-05-19 12:34:59", tz="UTC")
    unix_timestamp <- as.numeric(date)
    print(unix_timestamp)

Output:

1368966899

Example only. There may be multiple ways to perform this operation.

Code Explanation

In this R second example, a specific date ("2013-05-19 12:34:59") is converted to a Unix timestamp using as.POSIXct() to create a date-time object and as.numeric() to convert it to the number of seconds since the Unix epoch.

Convert Unix timestamp to Date in R

Other useful R date functions

Function	Description	Example
`Sys.Date()`	Returns the current date.	`Sys.Date()` returns 2024-08-28
`Sys.time()`	Returns the current date and time as a POSIXct object.	`Sys.time()` returns 2024-08-28 12:34:56
`as.Date()`	Converts a character string to a Date object.	`as.Date('2024-08-28')` returns 2024-08-28
`as.POSIXct()`	Converts a date-time string or object to a POSIXct object, which represents the date and time in seconds since the Unix epoch.	`as.POSIXct('2024-08-28 12:34:56')` returns 2024-08-28 12:34:56
`as.POSIXlt()`	Converts a date-time string or object to a POSIXlt object, which stores date-time components as a list.	`as.POSIXlt('2024-08-28 12:34:56')` returns a list with date-time components.
`format()`	Formats a date or date-time object according to a specified format string.	`format(Sys.Date(), '%Y-%m-%d')` returns 2024-08-28
`difftime()`	Calculates the difference between two dates or date-time objects.	`difftime(Sys.time(), as.POSIXct('2024-08-28 12:00:00'))` returns 0.5 hours
`strptime()`	Parses a date-time string according to a specified format and returns a POSIXlt object.	`strptime('2024-08-28 12:34:56', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')` returns a POSIXlt object.
`seq.Date()`	Generates a sequence of dates.	`seq.Date(from=as.Date('2024-08-28'), by='1 day', length.out=3)` returns 2024-08-28, 2024-08-29, 2024-08-30
`julian()`	Calculates the Julian date (days since origin) for a Date or POSIXct object.	`julian(as.Date('2024-08-28'))` returns 20143 days since origin.

Current Unix Timestamp SECONDS SINCE JAN 01 1970

Current UTC Time

2025-08-20