A timestamp is a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second. Timestamps do not have to be based on some absolute notion of time, however. They can have any epoch, can be relative to any arbitrary time, such as the power-on time of a system, or to some arbitrary time in the past.
A distinction is sometimes made between the terms datestamp, timestamp and date-timestamp:
- Datestamp or DS: A date, for example
2025-03-4 - Timestamp or TS: A time of day, for example
13:00:59 - Date-timestamp or DTS: Date and time, for example
2025-03-4, 13:00:59