How to convert DateTime to a number in MySQL?

Question

How can I get the total number of seconds since \'1970-01-01 00:00:01\' from a DateTime instance in MySQL?

Answer 1

You are looking for UNIX_TIMESTAMP().

See: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_unix-timestamp

If UNIX_TIMESTAMP() is called with a date argument, it returns the value of the argument as seconds since '1970-01-01 00:00:00' UTC.