Are there any way to store unix timestamp in NodeJS buffer?

Question

Need to create a buffer from UNIX timestamp to save it on bsv blockchain. Tried this solution:

let buffer = Buffer.allocUnsafe(10);
buffer.writeUInt16BE(Date.now());

But getting an error:

RangeError [ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE]: The value of "value" is out of range. It must be >= 0 and <= 65535. Received 1568909911723
    at checkInt (internal/buffer.js:35:11)
    at writeU_Int16BE (internal/buffer.js:653:3)
    at Buffer.writeUInt16BE (internal/buffer.js:661:10)

Did you give a try below solution? – Sandeep Patel Sep 21 '19 at 07:37 — Sandeep Patel, Sep 21 '19 at 07:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 20 '19 at 17:07

Try this:

    let bignum = require('bignum');
    let opts= {endian:'big',size:6 /*6-byte / 48-bit*/}
    let dt = Date.now();
    console.log(dt);
    let num = bignum(dt.toString());
    var buf = num.toBuffer(opts);
    let a = bignum.fromBuffer(buf,opts)
    console.log(a.toNumber());

Read this also:nodejs write 64bit unsigned integer to buffer. Will be helpful to understand the core concept.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 30 '21 at 23:38

Unix timestamp usually implies seconds while timestamps in JS contain milliseconds. If you need the milliseconds use Sandeep Patels solution.

If seconds are enough it can be simplified to this:

const seconds = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
const timeBuffer = Buffer.alloc(4, 0x00);
timeBuffer.writeUInt32BE(seconds, 0);

Are there any way to store unix timestamp in NodeJS buffer?

2 Answers2