Python .mktime()

In the time module, the .mktime() function takes a struct_time object or a 9-element tuple representing local time and returns a floating-point number of seconds since the epoch (i.e., “Unix timestamp” in local time). It is effectively the inverse of time.localtime().

Syntax

time.mktime(t)

Parameters:

• t: A time.struct_time object or a full 9-element tuple ((year, month, day, hour, minute, second, weekday, day_of_year, isdst)) representing local time.

Return value:

A float representing seconds since the epoch in local time. Raises OverflowError or ValueError if the input cannot be represented.

Example 1: Basic conversion from tuple to timestamp

This example converts a local time tuple directly into seconds since epoch:

import time

time_tuple = (2025, 4, 11, 14, 30, 0, 4, 101, -1)  # year, month, day, hour, minute, second, weekday, yearday, isdst
timestamp = time.mktime(time_tuple)
print("Timestamp:", timestamp)

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The output of this code can be:

Timestamp: 1744381800.0

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Note: The exact timestamp value depends on system’s local timezone. The value shown represents the result in UTC. In other timezones, the output will differ by the timezone offset.

Example 2: Convert current local time (via struct_time) to timestamp

This example gets the current local time in struct_time form and then uses .mktime() to convert it to an epoch seconds value:

import time

local_struct = time.localtime()
timestamp = time.mktime(local_struct)
print("Current local seconds since epoch:", timestamp)

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A possible output of this code is:

Current local seconds since epoch: 1762169287.0

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Codebyte Example

This interactive example shows conversion and round-trip (timestamp ↔ struct_time) behaviour:

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