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

Just to add up, here's a function to return a timestamp string in Javascript. Example: 15:06:38 PM

function displayTime() {
    var str = "";

    var currentTime = new Date()
    var hours = currentTime.getHours()
    var minutes = currentTime.getMinutes()
    var seconds = currentTime.getSeconds()

    if (minutes < 10) {
        minutes = "0" + minutes
    }
    if (seconds < 10) {
        seconds = "0" + seconds
    }
    str += hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + seconds + " ";
    if(hours > 11){
        str += "PM"
    } else {
        str += "AM"
    }
    return str;
}

Answer 2

One I haven't seen yet

Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000); // current time in seconds

Another one I haven't seen yet is

var _ = require('lodash'); // from here https://lodash.com/docs#now
_.now();

Answer 3

more simpler way:

var timeStamp=event.timestamp || new Date().getTime();

Answer 4

You can only use

    var timestamp = new Date().getTime();
    console.log(timestamp);

to get the current timestamp. No need to do anything extra.

Answer 5

// The Current Unix Timestamp
// 1443534720 seconds since Jan 01 1970. (UTC)

// seconds
console.log(Math.floor(new Date().valueOf() / 1000)); // 1443534720
console.log(Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)); // 1443534720
console.log(Math.floor(new Date().getTime() / 1000)); // 1443534720

// milliseconds
console.log(Math.floor(new Date().valueOf())); // 1443534720087
console.log(Math.floor(Date.now())); // 1443534720087
console.log(Math.floor(new Date().getTime())); // 1443534720087

// jQuery
// seconds
console.log(Math.floor($.now() / 1000)); // 1443534720
// milliseconds
console.log($.now()); // 1443534720087

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

Answer 6

Short & Snazzy:

+ new Date()

A unary operator like plus triggers the valueOf method in the Date object and it returns the timestamp (without any alteration).

Details:

On almost all current browsers you can use Date.now() to get the UTC timestamp in milliseconds; a notable exception to this is IE8 and earlier (see compatibility table).

You can easily make a shim for this, though:

if (!Date.now) {
    Date.now = function() { return new Date().getTime(); }
}

To get the timestamp in seconds, you can use:

Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)

Or alternatively you could use:

Date.now() / 1000 | 0

Which should be slightly faster, but also less readable (also see this answer).

I would recommend using Date.now() (with compatibility shim). It's slightly better because it's shorter & doesn't create a new Date object. However, if you don't want a shim & maximum compatibility, you could use the "old" method to get the timestamp in milliseconds:

new Date().getTime()

Which you can then convert to seconds like this:

Math.round(new Date().getTime()/1000)

And you can also use the valueOf method which we showed above:

new Date().valueOf()

Timestamp in Milliseconds

var timeStampInMs = window.performance && window.performance.now && window.performance.timing && window.performance.timing.navigationStart ? window.performance.now() + window.performance.timing.navigationStart : Date.now();

console.log(timeStampInMs, Date.now());