General Discussion

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The year 2038 problem (also known as Y2038,[1] Y2K38, Y2K38 superbug, or the Epochalypse[2][3]) is a time computing problem that leaves some computer systems unable to represent times after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038.

The problem exists in systems which measure Unix time—the number of seconds elapsed since the Unix epoch (00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970)—and store it in a signed 32-bit integer. The data type is only capable of representing integers between − 2^31) and 2^31 − 1, meaning the latest time that can be properly encoded is 2^31 − 1 seconds after epoch (03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038). Attempting to increment to the following second (03:14:08) will cause the integer to overflow, setting its value to − 2^31) which systems will interpret as 2^31 seconds before epoch (20:45:52 UTC on 13 December 1901). Systems using unsigned 32-bit integers will overflow in 2106. The problem resembles the year 2000 problem but arises from limitations in base-2 (binary) time representation, rather than base-10.



{ ^ represents the exponentation or powering operator. 2^31 = 2,147,483,648 }