UNIX_TIMESTAMP(), UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date)

If called with no argument, returns a Unix timestamp (seconds since '1970-01-01 00:00:00' UTC) as an unsigned integer. If UNIX_TIMESTAMP() is called with a date argument, it returns the value of the argument as seconds since '1970-01-01 00:00:00' UTC. date may be a DATE string, a DATETIME string, a TIMESTAMP, or a number in the format YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD. The server interprets date as a value in the current time zone and converts it to an internal value in UTC. Clients can set their time zone as described in Section 9.7, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”.

mysql> SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP();
        -> 1196440210
mysql> SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2007-11-30 10:30:19');
        -> 1196440219

When UNIX_TIMESTAMP() is used on a TIMESTAMP column, the function returns the internal timestamp value directly, with no implicit “string-to-Unix-timestamp” conversion. If you pass an out-of-range date to UNIX_TIMESTAMP(), it returns 0.

Note: If you use UNIX_TIMESTAMP() and FROM_UNIXTIME() to convert between TIMESTAMP values and Unix timestamp values, the conversion is lossy because the mapping is not one-to-one in both directions. For example, due to conventions for local time zone changes, it is possible for two UNIX_TIMESTAMP() to map two TIMESTAMP values to the same Unix timestamp value. FROM_UNIXTIME() will map that value back to only one of the original TIMESTAMP values. Here is an example, using TIMESTAMP values in the CET time zone:

mysql> SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 03:00:00');
+---------------------------------------+
| UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 03:00:00') |
+---------------------------------------+
|                            1111885200 |
+---------------------------------------+
mysql> SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 02:00:00');
+---------------------------------------+
| UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 02:00:00') |
+---------------------------------------+
|                            1111885200 |
+---------------------------------------+
mysql> SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(1111885200);
+---------------------------+
| FROM_UNIXTIME(1111885200) |
+---------------------------+
| 2005-03-27 03:00:00       |
+---------------------------+

If you want to subtract UNIX_TIMESTAMP() columns, you might want to cast the result to signed integers. See Section 11.9, “Cast Functions and Operators”.

SOURCE: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/cast-functions.html