Random Date Time Generator

Overview

When building test data the expensive part is not the code, it is inventing timestamps that look plausible: orders that fall inside a campaign window, attendance records scattered across working days, draw times that must not repeat yet should not look suspiciously regular. This generator produces a chosen number of random points inside a start and end range, with optional alignment to a whole minute, hour or day so nothing lands on an odd 03:17:42 second. Uniqueness can be enforced to keep a draw free of duplicates, results can be sorted for direct pasting into a time ordered sheet, and every row carries the Unix seconds value so the batch can be loaded into a database or a test script through CSV.

Features

• Batch generation inside a range, up to 200 points per run, bounded by two datetime fields
• Alignment to minute, hour or day so generated points never carry stray seconds or milliseconds
• A uniqueness switch that prevents the same instant from appearing twice, essential for draws and dispatch
• Ordering by random or ascending, where ascending output drops straight into a chronological sheet
• Each row carries both the readable time and the Unix seconds value for database columns
• Copy the list as plain text, or export a three column CSV of index, time and Unix seconds

How to use

1. Set the start and end datetimes; an end earlier than the start is rejected immediately
2. Enter how many points you want, capped at 200 per run
3. Choose alignment: exact seconds, whole minutes, whole hours or whole days
4. Decide on uniqueness and ordering; draws should always have uniqueness on
5. Press generate, then copy the list or export CSV into the test database

Notes

• Uniqueness is best effort: in a narrow range close to the number of available points the generator stops after its attempt budget, so you may receive fewer rows than requested
• Alignment rounds to whole units inside the range, and day alignment lands at midnight, so choose hour alignment when you need times spread across a day
• Values come from the browser pseudo random generator, which suits fixtures and demos but not lotteries or any draw that needs fairness guarantees
• Times are read and shown in the local timezone, so a distributed team sees results offset by several hours
• A range spanning a daylight saving change contains a repeated or missing hour locally; use UTC records when a strictly continuous axis matters
• The exported CSV carries Unix seconds, so take care not to mix second and millisecond columns on import
• Generated values are not seeded, which means two runs can never be reproduced exactly for a regression fixture
• Values are drawn from the browser crypto source when available and fall back to Math.random, both mapped into the chosen span; alignment snaps each result down to the minute, hour or day grid so generated rows match database columns with that precision.
• Uniqueness is enforced by rejection sampling against the values already produced, so asking for more points than the grid holds returns fewer rows instead of duplicates.
• A three hour window holds only 180 whole minute steps, so requesting 200 unique minute stamps there cannot be satisfied and the tool says so rather than quietly repeating values.