[Python-Dev] datetime module enhancements (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Fri Mar 9 21:00:16 CET 2007

BJörn Lindqvist schrieb:

If you extend the range to 64 bits there's no problem: the first should print 32503680000, the second -2208988800. I think it should be a ValueError, given that the programmer is very likely to further use the returned timestamp to for example insert stuff in a database.

Then this operation (the insertion into a database) should give a ValueError. Python conceptually has only a single integer type, and that has no range limitation.

Of course, if "conversion to time_t" was an operation in datetime, than this should limit it in the range of time_t (which may or may not have 32 bits).

Unix timestamps are not unambiguously defined for any years other than 1970 to 2038 imho.

As others have said: this is simply not true. It depends on the hardware, Unix explicitly, deliberately, leaves that open to the specific operating system implementation. On a 36-bit hardware, the range will be different.

Regards, Martin

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