s = DateToTimestamp(d$[, isdst])
d$. This
string must be in Hollywood's standard date format, i.e. dd-mmm-yyyy hh:mm:ss.
See CompareDates for details.
Note that the date that you pass to this function is interpreted as local time
whereas the timestamp returned starts from UTC time, i.e. from the Unix epoch
which starts on January 1st, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. This means that passing 01-Jan-1970 00:00:00 will only
return 0 if the local timezone is identical to the UTC timezone. On systems east of UTC, passing
the 01-Jan-1970 00:00:00 will lead to an error because January 1st, 1970,
00:00:00, east of UTC means December 31st, 1969 UTC which cannot be represented in
the Unix epoch.
The optional argument isdst specifies whether or not daylight saving time is
active at the specified date. Normally, you don't have to specify this argument
because Hollywood will automatically query this information from the timezone
database. It is only necessary to pass this information in case the specified
time is ambiguous, i.e. when switching from daylight saving time back to standard
time, a certain period of time (typically an hour) is repeated in the night.
In Germany, for example, clocks are set back from 3am to 2am when switching
from daylight saving time to standard time. This means that the hour between
2am and 3am happens twice: Once in daylight saving time, once in standard time.
The isdst argument allows you to specify which hour you are referring to.
To convert a timestamp back into a date, use the TimestampToDate() function. See TimestampToDate for details.