Timestamp
A timestamp is a value representing a specific point in time, typically associated with an event, observation, or data item.
Pandas Workout: 200 exercises to make you a stronger data analyst
A timestamp object represents a specific date and time as a structured value supporting temporal calculations and comparisons.
- How it is used
- Supports parsing, comparing, indexing, filtering, and aggregating date-and-time data in pandas analyses.
- How deep it goes
- Explains parsing, components, arithmetic, comparisons, indexed retrieval, slicing, and resampling through executable data tasks.
- Examples
- Uses formatted date strings, oil prices, New York taxi rides, and Apollo mission launch dates.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via pandas to parse dates, calculate durations, filter records, query periods, and resample time series.
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Kafka Streams in Action, Second Edition
A timestamp is a time value associated with a record that indicates when the represented event occurred or is ordered relative to other events.
- How it is used
- Drives record retention and time-based Kafka Streams operations, including windows, joins, changelogs, and punctuation.
- How deep it goes
- Defines producer and broker timestamp behavior, then works through timestamp semantics, extraction, ksqlDB selection, and join windows.
- Examples
- Uses purchases, sensors, fitness activity, loan processing, and coffee and store records to illustrate timestamp choices.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Kafka and ksqlDB configuration to preserve, extract, inspect, or replace the time used for records and processing.
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Logs and Telemetry
A timestamp is a time value associated with an event to indicate when it occurred or was received.
- How it is used
- Establishes event ordering and freshness, then drives Fluent Bit routing inputs and time-windowed stream calculations.
- How deep it goes
- Explains timestamp assignment, Lua’s seconds.nanoseconds representation, and window-boundary behavior without detailing timestamp parsing formats.
- Examples
- Demonstrates Lua callbacks that preserve timestamps and a one-second dummy stream aggregated through a hopping window.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it by selecting input timestamps, preserving them through Lua filters, and sizing time windows around event rates.
Kafka for Architects
A message timestamp is the time value associated with a Kafka message for determining its retention age.
- How it is used
- Determines message age for time-based Kafka retention and prompts a deliberate choice between producer and broker time.
- How deep it goes
- Explains timestamp sources, producer-clock risks, broker bounds, and batch behavior without a low-level implementation walkthrough.
- Examples
- Uses a one-day consumer disconnection, inaccurate producer clocks, batched messages, and transaction business timestamps.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it by choosing a timestamp source, checking producer-time bounds, and preserving client time when needed.
Rust in Action: Systems programming concepts and techniques
A timestamp is a representation of a point in time, commonly expressed as an elapsed value or formatted date and time.
- How it is used
- Represents current time for display, encoding, and comparison when synchronizing clocks.
- How deep it goes
- Works through integer-encoding trade-offs, reading system time, formatting, and comparing timestamps during NTP synchronization.
- Examples
- Uses a Rust clock program that prints local time, UNIX seconds, and RFC-formatted dates.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via chrono to read system time and print UNIX, RFC 2822, or RFC 3339 timestamps.
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Apache Kafka in Action
A timestamp is a recorded indication of when a Kafka message or record was produced or otherwise associated with a time.
- How it is used
- Supports time-window aggregation and correlation while distinguishing message timing from database change detection.
- How deep it goes
- Defines four kinds of time and explains timestamp configuration and JDBC polling pitfalls, but does not work through a window configuration.
- Examples
- Contrasts an unchanged customer ID with a lastupdated column and tabulates event, create, log append, and stream times.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate/understand which time a Kafka operation uses and why a JDBC connector may miss an update.
ScyllaDB in Action
A timestamp is a value representing the time assigned to a database write or cell value for conflict resolution.
- How it is used
- Uses TIMESTAMP to store complete moments and cell write timestamps to resolve competing writes.
- How deep it goes
- Explains representations, type selection, cell-level conflict resolution, inspection, and manual timestamp overrides.
- Examples
- Demonstrates timestamps through article-date type selection and competing edits to an author bio.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate which time type fits a field and diagnose write conflicts with WRITETIME and USING TIMESTAMP.
The Well-Grounded Rubyist, Fourth Edition
DateTime is a Ruby class provided by the date library for representing calendar dates together with times and related calendar information.
- How it is used
- Represents calendar dates together with times and supports common date-and-time manipulations.
- How deep it goes
- Explains construction, queries, conversion, and calendar arithmetic without surveying every available method.
- Examples
- Uses DateTime construction, current-time lookup, string parsing, field queries, and month arithmetic.
- What you can do after
- Apply DateTime constructors, queries, conversions, and calendar arithmetic in Ruby.
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Grokking Relational Database Design
A TIMESTAMP data type records a date and time representing an exact event moment, typically with automatic time-zone conversion by the database system.
- How it is used
- Records exact event moments for logs, record creation, and modification across time zones.
- How deep it goes
- Defines TIMESTAMP, contrasts related temporal types, and recommends UTC but defers implementation-specific behavior.
- Examples
- Uses review_time, log timestamps, and record creation or modification times as concrete examples.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate temporal requirements and choose TIMESTAMP when an event moment must remain consistent across time zones.
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Acing the CCNA Exam: Volume 2 Advanced Networking and Security
A timestamp is a date-and-time value attached to an event or record to indicate when it occurred.
- How it is used
- Supports event logging, security time checks, and correlation of network events across devices.
- How deep it goes
- Defines timestamp meaning and IOS display options, but defers detailed logging treatment.
- Examples
- Uses Cisco show logging and show clock output, including OSPF transitions and differing device clocks.
- What you can do after
- Diagnose network events by reading timestamped logs and correlating them across devices.
Read how Acing the CCNA Exam: Volume 2 Advanced Networking and Security explains timestamp →
Related concepts
- datekind of · A date is a calendar value identifying a particular day.
- time zoneconfigured by · A time zone is a geographic or rule-defined region whose local civil time is determined by offsets and calendar-time rules relative to a reference time standard.
- CPU timecontrasts with · CPU time is the amount of processor execution time consumed by a program, process, thread, or computation.
- database functionkind of · A database function is a named routine stored or executed in a database that accepts inputs and computes a result, often a scalar or table-valued result.
- service timestamps logconfigured by · service timestamps log is a Cisco IOS global-configuration command that configures the time information attached to log messages.
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