Format as timestamp when you only have hours and minutes

Configuration
1

I’m using the multiscraping sensor to get tide info, the table cell I’m pulling from is the result for today:

  - platform: multiscrape
    name: home assistant scraper
    resource: https://www.thesiteimscraping.com/page
    scan_interval: 30
    selectors:
    
      firsthightidetime:
        name: First High Tide
        select: "div.stationTables > div.grid-12.indent-medium > div:nth-child(1) > table > tbody > tr:nth-child(1) > td.time"

Using this method I created these sensors:

image
image1054×916 37.2 KB

So I’d like to format the time of the tides as a timestamp, but I only have hours.

{{ as_timestamp(states('sensor.secondlowtidetime')) }}

gives me ‘None’

{{ as_timestamp(strptime(states('sensor.secondlowtidetime'), '%H:%M')) }}

also provides ‘None’

{{ strptime(states('sensor.secondlowtidetime'), '%H:%M') }}

1900-01-01 23:30:00

{{ as_timestamp(strptime(states('sensor.secondlowtidetime'), "%H:%M")) }}

-2208904200.0

looks like we’re getting somewhere, finally a timestamp. But how to advance the year?

{% set day = (now().day)  %}
{% set year = (now().year)  %}
{% set month = (now().month)  %}
{% set time = states('sensor.secondlowtidetime') %}
{% set tide = (year,month,day,time) %}

{{ tide }}

{{year}}-{{month}}-{{day}} {{states('sensor.secondlowtidetime')}}

gives me:

image

sweet - this looks ready for the as_timestamp(). But it never works! How do I format it so that as_timestamp is happy?

2

Your problem is probably due to the non-zero-padded month (and date, but you can’t see that here). Try this:

{% set tide = "23:30" %}
{{ (now()|string)[:11] + tide }}
{{ ((now()|string)[:11] + tide)|as_timestamp }}

now()|string returns an ISO8601 string, the first 11 characters are the date and the first space.

3

Ok, that helped a ton!

ok. So the scrape sensor doesn’t support device_class: timestamp, instead I created a template sensor based on the code you shared with me:

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      nexthightide:
        friendly_name: "Next high tide"
        device_class: timestamp
        value_template: >-
          {% set firsthigh = states('sensor.firsthightidetime') %}
          {{ ((now()|string)[:11] + firsthigh)|as_timestamp }}

and this displays:

image
image1049×878 32.9 KB

Do you understand why it says invalid timestamp in an entities card?

4

On my phone, so I can’t type it all out…

I can see why you’re confused. The device class of timestamp assumes it’s formatted in the ISO format, not a Unix timestamp as epoch seconds.

Use this:

  • Filter timestamp_utc converts a UNIX timestamp to its string representation representation as date/time in UTC timezone.

Or the _local variant if needed.

Also check the warning in the docs.

5

sheesh documentation examples are thin here.

I’m not having any luck plunking timestamp_utc into my template sensor, can’t find the right syntax.

6

Next time show us at least one thing you’ve tried.

Superfluous example:

{{ now() | as_timestamp | timestamp_local }}

Then:

{{ ((now()|string)[:11] + firsthigh) | as_timestamp | timestamp_local }}