CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in milliseconds

Question

Is there any way to get milliseconds out of a timestamp in MySql or PostgreSql (or others just out of curiosity)?

SELECT CURRENT_TI         


        

Answer 1

For everyone here, just listen / read the comments of Doin very good! The UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function will, when a datatime-string is given, contact a local time, based on the timezone of the MySQL Connection or the server, to a unix timestamp. When in a different timezone and dealing with daylight savings, one hour per year, this will go wrong!

For example, in the Netherlands, the last Sunday of October, a second after reaching 02:59:59 for the first time, the time will be set back to 02:00:00 again. When using the NOW(), CURTIME() or SYSDATE()-functions from MySQL and passing it to the UNIX_TIMESTAMP() function, the timestamps will be wrong for a whole our.

For example, on Satudray 27th of October 2018, the time and timestamps went like this:

Local time                        |  UTC Time                 |  Timestamp   |  Timestamp using MYSQL's UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW(4))
----------------------------------+---------------------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------------------
2018-10-27 01:59:59 CET (+02:00)  |  2018-10-26 23:59:59 UTC  |  1540598399  |  1540598399
2018-10-27 02:00:00 CET (+02:00)  |  2018-10-27 00:00:00 UTC  |  1540598400  |  1540598400 + 1 second
2018-10-27 02:59:59 CET (+02:00)  |  2018-10-27 00:59:59 UTC  |  1540601999  |  1540601999 
2018-10-27 03:00:00 CET (+02:00)  |  2018-10-27 01:00:00 UTC  |  1540602000  |  1540602000 + 1 second
2018-10-27 03:59:59 CET (+02:00)  |  2018-10-27 01:59:59 UTC  |  1540605599  |  1540605599
2018-10-27 04:00:00 CET (+02:00)  |  2018-10-27 02:00:00 UTC  |  1540605600  |  1540605600 + 1 second

But on Sunday 27th of October 2019, when we've adjusted the clock one hour. Because the local time, doensn't include information whether it's +02:00 or +01:00, converting the time 02:00:00 the first time and the second time, both give the same timestamp (from the second 02:00:00) when using MYSQL's UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW(4)) function. So, when checking the timestamps in the database, it did this: +1 +1 +3601 +1 +1 ... +1 +1 -3599 +1 +1 etc.

Local time                        |  UTC Time                 |  Timestamp   |  Timestamp using MYSQL's UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW(4))
----------------------------------+---------------------------+--------------+-----------------------------------------------------
2019-10-27 01:59:59 CET (+02:00)  |  2019-10-26 23:59:59 UTC  |  1572134399  |  1572134399
2019-10-27 02:00:00 CET (+02:00)  |  2019-10-27 00:00:00 UTC  |  1572134400  |  1572138000 + 3601 seconds
2019-10-27 02:59:59 CET (+02:00)  |  2019-10-27 00:59:59 UTC  |  1572137999  |  1572141599
2019-10-27 02:00:00 CET (+01:00)  |  2019-10-27 01:00:00 UTC  |  1572138000  |  1572138000 - 3599 seconds
2019-10-27 02:59:59 CET (+01:00)  |  2019-10-27 01:59:59 UTC  |  1572141599  |  1572141599
2019-10-27 03:00:00 CET (+01:00)  |  2019-10-27 02:00:00 UTC  |  1572141600  |  1572141600 + 1 second

Relaying on the UNIX_TIMESTAMP()-function from MySQL when converting local times, unfortunately, is very unreliable! Instead of using SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP(NOW(4)), we're now using the code below, which seams to solve the issue.

SELECT ROUND(UNIX_TIMESTAMP() + (MICROSECOND(UTC_TIME(6))*0.000001), 4)