toSeconds

Converts a date to a timestamp in seconds (epoch seconds).

Use this when sending a date to a backend API that expects seconds (e.g. Java Instant.getEpochSecond(), Python time.time()).

Available since v2.0.0

Import

import { toSeconds } from '@helpers4/date';

Signature

toSeconds(date: DateLike): number | null

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
date	DateLike	The date to convert

Returns

number | null — Seconds since the Unix epoch, or null for invalid input

Examples

toSeconds

toSeconds('2025-01-19T12:00:00Z') // => 1737288000
toSeconds(null)                    // => null

Related Types

DateLike

A value that can be converted to a Date.

• Date — used as-is (validated for Invalid Date)
• number — treated as a timestamp (seconds or milliseconds, auto-detected); 0 is treated as invalid and produces null in ensureDate
• string — parsed via new Date(string)
• EpochMilliseconds — any object with a epochMilliseconds property (e.g. Temporal.Instant, Temporal.ZonedDateTime)

// TODO: When the Temporal API reaches Stage 4 and is available without // flags in all major runtimes, consider narrowing the union to the // concrete Temporal types for stricter type-checking.

type DateLike = Date | number | string | EpochMilliseconds

EpochMilliseconds

An object that exposes an epoch timestamp in milliseconds.

This structural type is satisfied by Temporal.Instant and Temporal.ZonedDateTime (and any future object that carries the same property), so callers can pass Temporal values without importing them.

interface EpochMilliseconds {
  epochMilliseconds: number;
}

Source

View source on GitHub