# Javascript Date

• Date object
• Get the system date as a string
• Get the current UTC time
• Convert timestamp to human readable date or time

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date

# Date object

The Javascript Date() returns a date object where the date and time retrieved are obtained from the user's local system. When no parameters are provided, the newly-created Date object represents the current date and time.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/Date#syntax

new Date({ null | value | dateString | dateObject })
new Date(year, monthIndex, day, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds)

const systemDateObject = new Date();
// Date Fri Jun 09 2023 13:51:34 GMT+1000 (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

# Get the system date as a string

To get the string representation of the date you can call the the Date() function (without the new keyword) or use the new Date().toString() method.

NOTE: Both the Date() and new Date().toString() will return the date and time value that looks similar to the new Date() object. Be assured they are not the same, they are string representations!

const systemDateAsString = Date(); // string
// Fri Jun 09 2023 13:51:34 GMT+1000 (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
const systemDateObjectToString = new Date().toString(); //string
// Fri Jun 09 2023 13:51:34 GMT+1000 (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

# Get the current UTC time

The JavaScript Date.now() function returns a timestamp that is based on UTC Time and is independent of the time zone of the user or the device executing the code.

To convert the value returned by Date.now() into a human-readable date and time, you can use the Date() object, and adjust it according to the desired time zone if necessary.

const utcTimestamp = Date.now();
// Output UTC timestamp: 1686256888210

NOTE: even though the timestamp is based on the UTC time, When converting the timestamp to a human readable format, the conversion is based on local time zone of the environment where the JavaScript code is executed.

const utcFromTimestamp = Date(utcTimestamp);
// Output: Fri Jun 09 2023 16:44:57 GMT+1000

The console.log statement is implicitly converting the Date object to a string using its default toString() method. This default conversion displays the date and time in the local time zone of the environment where the JavaScript code is executed.

If you want to display the utcFromTimestamp in UTC, you can use the toISOString() method, which returns a string representation of the Date object in UTC format. Here's an updated version of your code:

# Convert timestamp to human readable date or time

To convert a timestamp to human readable data you can ues the Date getter methods

First, convert the timestamp to a Date object, the add the selected method.

const timestamp = 1686256888210;
const dateObject = new Date(timestamp);

dateObject.getDate()
dateObject.getDay()
dateObject.getFullYear()
dateObject.getHours()
dateObject.getMilliseconds()
dateObject.getMinutes()
dateObject.getMonth()
dateObject.getSeconds()
dateObject.getTime()
dateObject.getTimezoneOffset()
dateObject.getUTCDate()
dateObject.getUTCDay()
dateObject.getUTCFullYear()
dateObject.getUTCHours()

You can interact with the timestamp value directly using getter and setter methods.