# Time.now **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 25, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-now/118296 "2007-10-25T13:00:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Casimir)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-now/118296/1 "2007-10-25T13:00:50Z")
What units does it output - with .to\_f or .to\_i? Doesn’t seem to be milliseconds. I could be wrong. Ruby-doc dogged me. Google said Jack Ruby was writing letters to his brother Earl and suggested japanese. 😃 I yam confused. Whats a good reference for this? Thanks Csmr ---
**Author:** ![Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Casimir)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-now/118296/2 "2007-10-25T13:14:17Z")
On 10/25/07, Casimir [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > What units does it output - with .to\_f or .to\_i? > > Doesn’t seem to be milliseconds. I could be wrong. Ruby-doc dogged me. > Google said Jack Ruby was writing letters to his brother Earl and > suggested japanese. 😃 > > I yam confused. Whats a good reference for this? Dunno, but ri on my machine says: for to\_f: Returns the value of _time_ as a floating point number of seconds since epoch. for to\_i: Returns the value of _time_ as a floating point number of seconds since epoch. Hope, that answers your question. – Let them talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting conservatories; give me the privilege of making my own summer with my own coals. [http://gnufied.org](http://gnufied.org) ---
**Author:** ![Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Casimir)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-now/118296/3 "2007-10-25T13:16:02Z")
On 10/25/07, hemant [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > for to\_f: > Returns the value of _time_ as a floating point number of seconds > since epoch. > > for to\_i: > Returns the value of _time_ as a floating point number of seconds > since epoch. > > Hope, that answers your question. Oops my bad, I pasted the same thing twice. Sincere apologies, although i hope you get the point nonetheless. > – > Let them talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting > conservatories; give me the privilege of making my own summer with my > own coals. > > [http://gnufied.org](http://gnufied.org) – Let them talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting conservatories; give me the privilege of making my own summer with my own coals. [http://gnufied.org](http://gnufied.org) ---
**Author:** ![Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Casimir](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Casimir)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2007, 1:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-now/118296/4 "2007-10-25T13:45:52Z")
On Thu, 2007-10-25 at 20:00 +0900, Casimir wrote: > What units does it output - with .to\_f or .to\_i? That’s seconds since the UNIX Epoch – 1st of January, 1970. irb(main):003:0\> now = Time.now.to\_i =\> 1193313074 irb(main):004:0\> #wait a few seconds irb(main):005:0\> later = Time.now.to\_i =\> 1193313084 irb(main):006:0\> later - now =\> 10 irb(main):007:0\> Of course, it’s totally unnecessary to cast, since the same thing happens when you do it directly: irb(main):008:0\> now = Time.now =\> Thu Oct 25 21:51:48 +1000 2007 irb(main):009:0\> later = Time.now =\> Thu Oct 25 21:51:52 +1000 2007 irb(main):010:0\> later - now =\> 3.621771 irb(main):011:0\> And defaults to better precision! (unless you pick .to\_f, the only difference I mean. But it’s semantically better this way.) Arlen