Module:TwitterSnowflake

This is a Lua module to translate snowflakes from platforms such as Twitter and Discord to timestamps. This can be used for automatically generating dates for templates like {{cite tweet}}.

Usage

There is one required parameter: |id_str=, which must be the snowflake ID of the tweet. For example, 1345021162959503360.

{{#invoke:TwitterSnowflake|snowflakeToDate|id_str=1345021162959503360}} returns January 1, 2021.

To specify the date format, use |format=.

{{#invoke:TwitterSnowflake|snowflakeToDate|id_str=1345021162959503360|format=%e %B %Y}} returns 1 January 2021 — useful to specify, especially for use in CS1 citations, in case the default date format would change in the future (though unlikely).

Custom epoch

By default, the epoch used is that of Twitter. To specify a different epoch, such as that of Twitter, use |epoch=. The epoch of Discord is 1420070400

{{#invoke:TwitterSnowflake|snowflakeToDate|id_str=797545051047460888|epoch=1420070400}} returns January 9, 2021.

See also

• Template:TwitterSnowflake
• Template:TwitterSnowflake/datecheck
• Template:Cite tweet
• Snowflake ID

---

local p = {}

local Date = require('Module:Date')._Date

function p.snowflakeToDate(frame)
	local format = frame.args.format or "%B %e, %Y"
	local epoch = tonumber(frame.args.epoch) or 1288834974
	local id_str = frame.args.id_str
	if type(id_str) ~= "string" then error("bad argument #1 (expected string, got " .. type(id_str) .. ")", 2) end
	if type(format) ~= "string" then error("bad argument #2 (expected string, got " .. type(format) .. ")", 2) end
	if type(epoch) ~= "number" then error("bad argument #3 (expected number, got " .. type(epoch) .. ")", 2) end
	local hi, lo = 0, 0
	local hiexp = 1
	for c in id_str:gmatch(".") do
		lo = lo * 10 + c
		if lo >= 2^32 then
			hi, lo = hi * 10^hiexp + math.floor(lo / 2^32), lo % 2^32
			hiexp = 1
		else hiexp = hiexp + 1 end
	end
	hi = hi * 10^(hiexp-1)
	local timestamp = math.floor((hi * 1024 + math.floor(lo / 4194304)) / 1000) + epoch
	return os.date(format, timestamp)
end

function p.getDate(frame)
	-- just pass frame directly to snowflakeToDate, this wraps it but the args are the same plus
	if (frame.args.id_str):match("%D") then -- not a number, so return -2
		return -2
	end
	frame.args.format = "%B %e, %Y"
	frame.args.epoch = tonumber(frame.args.epoch) or 1288834974
	local epochdate = Date(os.date("%B %e, %Y", frame.args.epoch))
	local twitterdate = Date(p.snowflakeToDate(frame))
	if twitterdate == epochdate then -- created before epoch, so can't determine the date
		return -1
	end
	local date = Date(frame.args.date) or 0 -- if we error here, then an input of no date causes an error, which is contrary to the entire way {{TwitterSnowflake/datecheck}} works
	return date - twitterdate
end

return p