user16: This may be a very simple question to answer, but I haven't been able to quickly find it.  Regardless, if you were to deconstruct a transaction in the blockchain, and pull out the time value of the transaction, what format is the time stamp in?
In other words, if you were to pull out the draw time value, how can I convert it to a meaningful value?

user120: Transactions do not have a time per se. They do have a lock_time which is currently not used anyway.
Blocks do have timestamps, bytes 69-72 after trimming the protocol headers and checksums. Some may say that a transactions time is the time of the block that included it.
Another interpretation (the one used by blockchain.info) is simply the first time the transaction was received by the peer.

user2306: There are several things you could mean by the time of the transaction:

When the transaction is created
When the transaction is known about by 90% of the network
When the transaction is first included into a block
When the block is known to 90% of the network

We can't know 1, because it could have been generated offline, and there's no time field. You can assume that 1 is 30 seconds or so before 2, but again, you can't know.
We can figure out 2, because the time that we receive the transaction is going to be pretty much the same as when 90% of the network does. For historical data, blockchain.info has an API.
We can figure out 3, because there's a time field in the block. However, that can be off by up to an hour, and the network won't care. Still, there's not much reason to lie about it.
Figuring out 4 is pretty much the same as 2.

user12769: If you are literally referring to the "time" or "blocktime" property of a transaction within the blockchain, then this timestamp is in Unix format.
And if by "convert it to a meaningful value", you mean a human-readable format, you can use a unix command line (e.g. Terminal on OSX) to do a quick conversion:
Linux:
$ date -d @1395103695

Mac OSX:
$ date -j -f "%s" 1395103695

...which would return the following:
Mon Mar 17 14:48:15 HST 2014


16: <p>This may be a very simple question to answer, but I haven't been able to quickly find it.  Regardless, if you were to deconstruct a transaction in the blockchain, and pull out the time value of the transaction, what format is the time stamp in?</p>

<p>In other words, if you were to pull out the draw time value, how can I convert it to a meaningful value?</p>
 120: <p>Transactions do not have a time per se. They do have a <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification#tx" rel="nofollow">lock_time</a> which is currently not used anyway.</p>

<p>Blocks do have timestamps, <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification#block" rel="nofollow">bytes 69-72</a> after trimming the protocol headers and checksums. Some may say that a transactions time is the time of the block that included it.</p>

<p>Another interpretation (the one used by blockchain.info) is simply the first time the transaction was received by the peer.</p>
 2306: <p>There are several things you could mean by the time of the transaction:</p>

<ol>
<li>When the transaction is created</li>
<li>When the transaction is known about by 90% of the network</li>
<li>When the transaction is first included into a block</li>
<li>When the block is known to 90% of the network</li>
</ol>

<p>We can't know 1, because it could have been generated offline, and there's no time field. You can assume that 1 is 30 seconds or so before 2, but again, you can't know.</p>

<p>We can figure out 2, because the time that we receive the transaction is going to be pretty much the same as when 90% of the network does. For historical data, <a href="http://blockchain.info/api/blockchain_api" rel="nofollow noreferrer">blockchain.info has an API.</a></p>

<p>We can figure out 3, because there's a time field in the block. However, that can be off by up to an hour, and the network won't care. Still, there's not much reason to lie about it.</p>

<p>Figuring out 4 is pretty much the same as 2.</p>
 12769: <p>If you are literally referring to the "time" or "blocktime" property of a transaction within the blockchain, then this timestamp is in Unix format.</p>

<p>And if by "convert it to a meaningful value", you mean a human-readable format, you can use a unix command line (e.g. Terminal on OSX) to do a quick conversion:</p>

<p><strong>Linux:</strong></p>

<pre><code>$ date -d @1395103695
</code></pre>

<p><strong>Mac OSX:</strong></p>

<pre><code>$ date -j -f "%s" 1395103695
</code></pre>

<p>...which would return the following:</p>

<pre><code>Mon Mar 17 14:48:15 HST 2014
</code></pre>
