For more than 20 years I've been looking at DateTime.Ticks Int64 values and they always look like 63nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, and I was wondering how long I have to wait until the leading digits become 64. A quick calculation reveals that we must wait until Monday, 29 January 2029 17:46:40. If you want to wait until the leading digit changes from 6 to 7 then we have to wait until Saturday, 20 March 2219 04:26:40.
If you're wondering when the 64-bit signed Ticks value will overflow and cause a new epochal form of millenium bug, then we have to wait about 29.2 million years.
Here is a nice breakdown of the digits in a Ticks value. Remember that the least significant digit (rightmost) is 100 nanoseconds (10-7 seconds).
UTC Now
Friday, 16 February 2024 06:56:32 ║ 2024-02-16T06:56:32.2446131Z
Ticks
638436633922446131 ║ 638,436,633,922,446,131
Seconds
63,843,663,392
| Digit | Power | Seconds | Span | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | -7 | 0.0000001 | 00:00:00.0000001 | |
| 3 | -6 | 0.000001 | 00:00:00.000001 | |
| 1 | -5 | 0.00001 | 00:00:00.00001 | |
| 6 | -4 | 0.0001 | 00:00:00.0001 | |
| 4 | -3 | 0.001 | 00:00:00.001 | |
| 4 | -2 | 0.01 | 00:00:00.01 | |
| 2 | -1 | 0.1 | 00:00:00.1 | |
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 00:00:01 | |
| 9 | 1 | 10 | 00:00:10 | |
| 3 | 2 | 100 | 00:01:40 | |
| 3 | 3 | 1000 | 00:16:40 | |
| 6 | 4 | 10000 | 02:46:40 | |
| 6 | 5 | 100000 | 1.03:46:40 | 0.003 |
| 3 | 6 | 1000000 | 11.13:46:40 | 0.032 |
| 4 | 7 | 10000000 | 115.17:46:40 | 0.317 |
| 8 | 8 | 100000000 | 1157.09:46:40 | 3.169 |
| 3 | 9 | 1000000000 | 11574.01:46:40 | 31.688 |
| 6 | 10 | 10000000000 | 115740.17:46:40 | 316.881 |
