Date & Time Guides

Practical, in-depth guides on working with dates, timestamps, and timezones. Written for developers, data analysts, and anyone who's been burned by a date format mismatch.

What Is a Unix Timestamp?

How epoch time works, how to convert it in JavaScript, Python, and SQL, and the pitfalls that catch people off guard.

Epoch Seconds Milliseconds Y2038
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ISO 8601 Date Format Explained

The international standard for dates and times — why it exists, its variants, and when to use each one.

Standard UTC Zulu Offset
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Timezone Abbreviations Reference

A complete reference of timezone abbreviations with UTC offsets, DST rules, and IANA zone IDs by region.

EST UTC DST IANA
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Date Format Cheat Sheet

Side-by-side comparison of common date formats with examples and copy-paste patterns for every major language.

Formats Patterns Examples Code
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How to Convert Dates in CSV Files

A practical guide to cleaning up messy date columns — mixed formats, locale issues, and batch conversion strategies.

CSV Batch Excel Cleanup
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Daylight Saving Time: The Developer's Nightmare

Why DST breaks more software than almost any other date concept — the spring gap, the fall overlap, and how to handle it in code.

DST Spring Forward IANA Edge Cases
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JavaScript Date Parsing: The Pitfalls That Catch Everyone

A survival guide to new Date(), Date.parse, and the silent bugs they produce — timezone assumptions, browser differences, and safer alternatives.

JavaScript Date() Parsing Temporal
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How Databases Store Dates: MySQL vs PostgreSQL vs SQLite

A comparison of date types across the three most common databases — timezone handling, precision, range limits, and migration pitfalls.

MySQL PostgreSQL SQLite Migration
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RFC 2822 Date Format: The Email Standard

The date format used in email headers, RSS feeds, and HTTP — how it works, how it differs from ISO 8601, and how to parse it.

Email RSS HTTP Headers