How do you get a timestamp in JavaScript?

Question

How can I get a timestamp in JavaScript?

Something similar to Unix timestamp, that is, a single number that represents the current time and date. Either as a number

Answer 1

JavaScript works with the number of milliseconds since the epoch whereas most other languages work with the seconds. You could work with milliseconds but as soon as you pass a value to say PHP, the PHP native functions will probably fail. So to be sure I always use the seconds, not milliseconds.

This will give you a Unix timestamp (in seconds):

var unix = Math.round(+new Date()/1000);

This will give you the milliseconds since the epoch (not Unix timestamp):

var milliseconds = new Date().getTime();