$TIME

References:

Uses UTC timezone. $TIME is intended to be a timestamp starting at Jan 1 1970, and a timer for tracking the passage of time. The year is not bounded, in that it can be large negative numbers and large positive numbers.

time()

> (0).time();
1970-01-01T00:00:00.000000

String Parsing

The .time() method can parse various string formats to create a $TIME object:

Supported Formats:

ISO 8601 with microseconds and timezone:

"2025-09-14T20:15:17.8017135+05:00".time()
"2025-09-14T20:15:17.8017135-08:00".time()
"2025-09-14T20:15:17.8017135+0500".time()    // 4-digit timezone format

ISO 8601 with microseconds (default):
```
"2025-09-14T20:15:17.8017135".time()
```

ISO 8601 without microseconds, with timezone:

"2025-09-14T20:15:17+05:00".time()
"2025-09-14T20:15:17-08:00".time()
"2025-09-14T20:15:17+0500".time()            // 4-digit timezone format
"2025-09-14T20:15:17Z".time()                // UTC indicator

ISO 8601 without microseconds:
```
"2025-09-14T20:15:17".time()
```
Space-separated date and time:
```
"2025-09-14 20:15:17".time()
```
US format (MM/DD/YYYY with time):
```
"09/14/2025 20:15:17".time()
```
US format (MM/DD/YYYY, time defaults to 00:00:00):
```
"09/14/2025".time()
```
European format (DD/MM/YYYY with time):
```
"14/09/2025 20:15:17".time()
```
European format (DD/MM/YYYY, time defaults to 00:00:00):
```
"14/09/2025".time()
```
Date only (time defaults to 00:00:00):
```
"2025-09-14".time()
```
Time only (uses current date):
```
"20:15:17".time()
```

Timezone Handling: - All timezone offsets are automatically converted to UTC for internal storage - Supported timezone formats: +05:00, -08:00, +0500, -0800, Z - Use .tz() to convert from UTC to local timezones as needed

Note: All parsed times are stored internally in UTC. Use .tz() to convert to local timezones as needed.

tz()

> $TIME().tz();
-28800000000000

> $TIME().tz()/1000000000
-28800

utc()

> $TIME().utc();
2020-07-10T19:05:58.6135794

> $TIME().utc() + $TIME().tz();
2020-07-10T12:06:15.9529207

ms()

> t1 = $TIME().utc();

> t1.ms();
3.8281652

The .ms() method calculates the time difference in milliseconds. It can be used in two ways:

Time since creation: t1.ms() - returns milliseconds since the time object was created
Time difference: t1.ms(t2) - returns milliseconds between t1 and t2

Performance Monitoring Example

The .ms() method is particularly useful for performance monitoring:

t1 = $TIME().utc();
1000.sleep();
t2 = t1.utc();
'Time1=${from_t1}; Time2=${from_t2}; Delta=${t2_t1}\n'.interpolate(from_t1:t1.ms().float(30),from_t2:t1.ms(t2).float(30),t2_t1:(t2-t1)/1000000).echo();
1000.sleep();
'Time1=${from_t1}; Time2=${from_t2}; Delta=${t2_t1}\n'.interpolate(from_t1:t1.ms().float(30),from_t2:t1.ms(t2).float(30),t2_t1:(t2-t1)/1000000).echo();

Output:

Time1=1249.2387; Time2=80.3584; Delta=1168.8803
Time1=2509.5192; Time2=1340.6389; Delta=1168.8803

This example demonstrates: - Time1: Milliseconds since t1 was created - Time2: Milliseconds between t1 and t2 - Delta: Time difference in seconds (converted from nanoseconds)

Examples

The following illustrate using various date ranges and string formats.

> "1020-04-23T12:33:33.921638".time();
1020-04-23T12:33:33.921638

> "2025-09-14 20:15:17".time();
2025-09-14T20:15:17.0

> "2025-09-14".time();
2025-09-14T00:00:00.0

> "09/14/2025".time();
2025-09-14T00:00:00.0

> "2025-09-14T20:15:17+05:00".time();
2025-09-14T15:15:17.0

> "2025-09-14T20:15:17-08:00".time();
2025-09-15T04:15:17.0

> "2025-09-14T20:15:17.123456+05:00".time();
2025-09-14T15:15:17.000123456

> "2025-09-14T20:15:17Z".time();
2025-09-14T20:15:17.0

> "1020-04-23T12:33:33.921638".time() + 24*60*60*1000000000;
1020-04-24T12:33:33.921638

> "-1020-04-23T12:33:33.921638".time() + 1;
-1020-04-23T12:33:33.921638001

> "-1020-04-23T12:33:33.921638".time().int();
-94345471586078362000

> (-94345471586078362000).time();
-1020-04-23T12:33:33.921638

Side effect of 1970

And a side effect of using 1970 as the center.

> a = $TIME().utc();

> a;
2020-07-10T19:51:26.3316532

> (0-a).time();
1919-06-24T04:08:33.6683468