How do I get the current date in JavaScript?

2607

votes

var currentTime = new Date(); – Hendrik

See the documentation for the Date object. It has examples. – Quentin

this would help you tizag.com/javascriptT/javascriptdate.php – user1017788

new Date() returns the current time, not the current date. The distinction matters if you're trying to compare it against another date which doesn't have a time component (ie, is at midnight). – Steve Bennett

use momentJs, this lib is gold for developers. – RBoschini

3083

votes

Use new Date() to generate a new Date object containing the current date and time.

var today = new Date();
var dd = String(today.getDate()).padStart(2, '0');
var mm = String(today.getMonth() + 1).padStart(2, '0'); //January is 0!
var yyyy = today.getFullYear();

today = mm + '/' + dd + '/' + yyyy;
document.write(today);

This will give you today's date in the format of mm/dd/yyyy.

Simply change today = mm +'/'+ dd +'/'+ yyyy; to whatever format you wish.

483

votes

var utc = new Date().toJSON().slice(0,10).replace(/-/g,'/');
document.write(utc);

Use the replace option if you're going to reuse the utc variable, such as new Date(utc), as Firefox and Safari don't recognize a date with dashes.

312

votes

The shortest possible.

To get format like "2018-08-03":

let today = new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10)

console.log(today)

To get format like "8/3/2018":

let today = new Date().toLocaleDateString()

console.log(today)

Also, you can pass locale as argument, for example toLocaleDateString("sr"), etc.

254

votes

UPDATED!, Scroll Down

If you want something simple pretty to the end-user ... Also, fixed a small suffix issue in the first version below. Now properly returns suffix.

var objToday = new Date(),
	weekday = new Array('Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'),
	dayOfWeek = weekday[objToday.getDay()],
	domEnder = function() { var a = objToday; if (/1/.test(parseInt((a + "").charAt(0)))) return "th"; a = parseInt((a + "").charAt(1)); return 1 == a ? "st" : 2 == a ? "nd" : 3 == a ? "rd" : "th" }(),
	dayOfMonth = today + ( objToday.getDate() < 10) ? '0' + objToday.getDate() + domEnder : objToday.getDate() + domEnder,
	months = new Array('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'),
	curMonth = months[objToday.getMonth()],
	curYear = objToday.getFullYear(),
	curHour = objToday.getHours() > 12 ? objToday.getHours() - 12 : (objToday.getHours() < 10 ? "0" + objToday.getHours() : objToday.getHours()),
	curMinute = objToday.getMinutes() < 10 ? "0" + objToday.getMinutes() : objToday.getMinutes(),
	curSeconds = objToday.getSeconds() < 10 ? "0" + objToday.getSeconds() : objToday.getSeconds(),
	curMeridiem = objToday.getHours() > 12 ? "PM" : "AM";
var today = curHour + ":" + curMinute + "." + curSeconds + curMeridiem + " " + dayOfWeek + " " + dayOfMonth + " of " + curMonth + ", " + curYear;

document.getElementsByTagName('h1')[0].textContent = today;

<h1></h1>

UBBER UPDATE After much procrastination, I've finally GitHubbed and updated this with the final solution I've been using for myself. It's even had some last-minute edits to make it sweeter! If you're looking for the old jsFiddle, please see this.

This update comes in 2 flavors, still relatively small, though not as small as my above, original answer. If you want extremely small, go with that.
Also Note: This is still less bloated than moment.js. While moment.js is nice, imo, it has too many secular methods, which require learning moment as if it were a language. Mine here uses the same common format as PHP: date.

Quick Links

Date.format.min.js 5.08 KB
dateFormat.min.js 4.16 KB

Flavor 1 new Date().format(String) My Personal Fav. I know the taboo but works great on the Date Object. Just be aware of any other mods you may have to the Date Object.

//  use as simple as
new Date().format('m-d-Y h:i:s');   //  07-06-2016 06:38:34

Flavor 2 dateFormat(Date, String) More traditional all-in-one method. Has all the ability of the previous, but is called via the method with Date param.

//  use as simple as
dateFormat(new Date(), 'm-d-Y h:i:s');  //  07-06-2016 06:38:34

BONUS Flavor (requires jQuery) $.date(Date, String) This contains much more than just a simple format option. It extends the base Date object and includes methods such as addDays. For more information, please see the Git.

In this mod, the format characters are inspired by PHP: date. For a complete list, please see my README

This mod also has a much longer list of pre-made formats. To use a premade format, simply enter its key name. dateFormat(new Date(), 'pretty-a');

'compound'
- 'commonLogFormat' == 'd/M/Y:G:i:s'
- 'exif' == 'Y:m:d G:i:s'
- 'isoYearWeek' == 'Y\\WW'
- 'isoYearWeek2' == 'Y-\\WW'
- 'isoYearWeekDay' == 'Y\\WWj'
- 'isoYearWeekDay2' == 'Y-\\WW-j'
- 'mySQL' == 'Y-m-d h:i:s'
- 'postgreSQL' == 'Y.z'
- 'postgreSQL2' == 'Yz'
- 'soap' == 'Y-m-d\\TH:i:s.u'
- 'soap2' == 'Y-m-d\\TH:i:s.uP'
- 'unixTimestamp' == '@U'
- 'xmlrpc' == 'Ymd\\TG:i:s'
- 'xmlrpcCompact' == 'Ymd\\tGis'
- 'wddx' == 'Y-n-j\\TG:i:s'
'constants'
- 'AMERICAN' == 'F j Y'
- 'AMERICANSHORT' == 'm/d/Y'
- 'AMERICANSHORTWTIME' == 'm/d/Y h:i:sA'
- 'ATOM' == 'Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP'
- 'COOKIE' == 'l d-M-Y H:i:s T'
- 'EUROPEAN' == 'j F Y'
- 'EUROPEANSHORT' == 'd.m.Y'
- 'EUROPEANSHORTWTIME' == 'd.m.Y H:i:s'
- 'ISO8601' == 'Y-m-d\\TH:i:sO'
- 'LEGAL' == 'j F Y'
- 'RFC822' == 'D d M y H:i:s O'
- 'RFC850' == 'l d-M-y H:i:s T'
- 'RFC1036' == 'D d M y H:i:s O'
- 'RFC1123' == 'D d M Y H:i:s O'
- 'RFC2822' == 'D d M Y H:i:s O'
- 'RFC3339' == 'Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP'
- 'RSS' == 'D d M Y H:i:s O'
- 'W3C' == 'Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP'
'pretty'
- 'pretty-a' == 'g:i.sA l jS \\o\\f F Y'
- 'pretty-b' == 'g:iA l jS \\o\\f F Y'
- 'pretty-c' == 'n/d/Y g:iA'
- 'pretty-d' == 'n/d/Y'
- 'pretty-e' == 'F jS - g:ia'
- 'pretty-f' == 'g:iA'

As you may notice, you can use double \ to escape a character.

188

votes

If you just want a date without time info, use:

var today = new Date();
    today.setHours(0, 0, 0, 0);

document.write(today);

110

votes

Try this:

var currentDate = new Date()
var day = currentDate.getDate()
var month = currentDate.getMonth() + 1
var year = currentDate.getFullYear()
document.write("<b>" + day + "/" + month + "/" + year + "</b>")

The result will be like

15/2/2012

67

votes

If you're looking for a lot more granular control over the date formats, I thoroughly recommend checking out momentjs. Terrific library - and only 5KB. http://momentjs.com/

56

votes

You can use moment.js: http://momentjs.com/

var m = moment().format("DD/MM/YYYY");

document.write(m);

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/moment.js/2.14.1/moment.min.js"></script>

54

votes

var d = (new Date()).toString().split(' ').splice(1,3).join(' ');

document.write(d)

To break it down into steps:

(new Date()).toString() gives "Fri Jun 28 2013 15:30:18 GMT-0700 (PDT)"
(new Date()).toString().split(' ') divides the above string on each space and returns an array as follows: ["Fri", "Jun", "28", "2013", "15:31:14", "GMT-0700", "(PDT)"]
(new Date()).toString().split(' ').splice(1,3).join(' ') takes the second, third and fourth values from the above array, joins them with spaces, and returns a string "Jun 28 2013"

50

votes

var date = new Date().toLocaleDateString("en-US");

Also, you can call method toLocaleDateString with two parameters:

var date = new Date().toLocaleDateString("en-US", {
    "year": "numeric",
    "month": "numeric"
});

Article on MSDN. More about this method on MDN.

48

votes

This works every time:

    var now = new Date();
    var day = ("0" + now.getDate()).slice(-2);
    var month = ("0" + (now.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2);
    var today = now.getFullYear() + "-" + (month) + "-" + (day);
    
    console.log(today);

31

votes

Cleaner, simpler version:

new Date().toLocaleString();

Result varies according to the user's locale:

2/27/2017, 9:15:41 AM

31

votes

If you are happy with YYYY-MM-DD format, this will do the job as well.

new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0]

2018-03-10

23

votes

You can use Date.js library which extens Date object, thus you can have .today() method.

19

votes

Most of the other answers are providing the date with time.
If you only need date.

new Date().toISOString().split("T")[0]

Output

[ '2021-02-08', '06:07:44.629Z' ]

If you want it in / format use replaceAll.

new Date().toISOString().split("T")[0].replaceAll("-", "/")

If you want other formats then best to use momentjs.

18

votes

You can get the current date call the static method now like this:

var now = Date.now()

reference:

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

16

votes

Varun's answer does not account for TimezoneOffset. Here is a version that does:

var d = new Date()
new Date(d.getTime() - d.getTimezoneOffset() * 60000).toJSON().slice(0, 10) // 2015-08-11

The TimezoneOffset is minutes, while the Date constructor takes milliseconds, thus the multiplication by 60000.

15

votes

The Shortest Answer is: new Date().toJSON().slice(0,10)

14

votes

As toISOString() will only return current UTC time , not local time. We have to make a date by using '.toString()' function to get date in yyyy-MM-dd format like

document.write(new Date(new Date().toString().split('GMT')[0]+' UTC').toISOString().split('T')[0]);

To get date and time into in yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss format

document.write(new Date(new Date().toString().split('GMT')[0]+' UTC').toISOString().split('.')[0]);

To get date and time into in yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format

document.write(new Date(new Date().toString().split('GMT')[0]+' UTC').toISOString().split('.')[0].replace('T',' '));

13

votes

new Date().toDateString();

Result:

"Wed Feb 03 2016"

11

votes

new Date().toISOString().slice(0,10);

would work too

10

votes

If you want a simple DD/MM/YYYY format, I've just come up with this simple solution, although it doesn't prefix missing zeros.

var d = new Date();
document.write( [d.getDate(), d.getMonth()+1, d.getFullYear()].join('/') );

8

votes

LATEST EDIT: 8/23/19 The date-fns library works much like moment.js but has a WAY smaller footprint. It lets you cherry pick which functions you want to include in your project so you don't have to compile the whole library to format today's date. If a minimal 3rd party lib isn't an option for your project, I endorse the accepted solution by Samuel Meddows up top.

Preserving history below because it helped a few people. But for the record it's pretty hacky and liable to break without warning, as are most of the solutions on this post

EDIT 2/7/2017 A one-line JS solution:

tl;dr

var todaysDate = new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().slice(0,3).match(/[0-9]/i) ? new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[0].split(',')[0] : new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[1] + " " + new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[2] + " " + new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[3];

edge, ff latest, & chrome return todaysDate = "2/7/2017"
"works"* in IE10+

Explanation

I found out that IE10 and IE Edge do things a bit differently.. go figure. with new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString() as input,

IE10 returns:

"Tuesday, February 07, 2017 2:58:25 PM"

I could write a big long function and FTFY. But you really ought to use moment.js for this stuff. My script merely cleans this up and gives you the expanded traditional US notation: > todaysDate = "March 06, 2017"

IE EDGE returns:

"‎2‎/‎7‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎59‎:‎27‎ ‎PM"

Of course it couldn't be that easy. Edge's date string has invisible "•" characters between each visible one. So not only will we now be checking if the first character is a number, but the first 3 characters, since it turns out that any single character in the whole date range will eventually be a dot or a slash at some point. So to keep things simple, just .slice() the first three chars (tiny buffer against future shenanigans) and then check for numbers. It should probably be noted that these invisible dots could potentially persist in your code. I'd maybe dig into that if you've got bigger plans than just printing this string to your view.

∴ updated one-liner:

var todaysDate = new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().slice(0,3).match(/[0-9]/i) ? new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[0].split(',')[0] : new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[1] + " " + new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[2] + " " + new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(' ')[3];

That sucks to read. How about:

var dateString = new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString();
var todaysDate = dateString.slice(0,3).match(/[0-9]/i) ? dateString.split(' ')[0].split(',')[0] : dateString.split(' ')[1] + " " + dateString.split(' ')[2] + " " + dateString.split(' ')[3];

ORIGINAL ANSWER

I've got a one-liner for you:

new Date(Date.now()).toLocaleString().split(', ')[0];

and [1] will give you the time of day.

8

votes

Using JS built in Date.prototype.toLocaleDateString() From MDN docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/toLocaleDateString

const options = { 
  month: '2-digit', 
  day: '2-digit',
  year: 'numeric', 
};

console.log(new Date().toLocaleDateString('en-US', options)); // mm/dd/yyyy

7

votes

You can use this

<script>
function my_curr_date() {      
    var currentDate = new Date()
    var day = currentDate.getDate();
    var month = currentDate.getMonth() + 1;
    var year = currentDate.getFullYear();
    var my_date = month+"-"+day+"-"+year;
    document.getElementById("dateField").value=my_date;    
}
</script>

The HTML is

<body onload='return my_curr_date();'>
    <input type='text' name='dateField' id='dateField' value='' />
</body>

7

votes

A straighforward way to pull that off (whilst considering your current time zone it taking advantage of the ISO yyyy-mm-dd format) is:

let d = new Date().toISOString().substring(0,19).replace("T"," ") // "2020-02-18 16:41:58"

Usually, this is a pretty all-purpose compatible date format and you can convert it to pure date value if needed:

Date.parse(d); // 1582044297000

7

votes

Try

`${Date()}`.slice(4,15)

console.log( `${Date()}`.slice(4,15) )

We use here standard JS functionalities: template literals, Date object which is cast to string, and slice. This is probably shortest solution which meet OP requirements (no time, only date)

6

votes

If you are using jQuery. Try this one liner :

$.datepicker.formatDate('dd/mm/yy', new Date());

Here is the convention for formatting the date

d - day of month (no leading zero)
dd - day of month (two digit)
o - day of the year (no leading zeros)
oo - day of the year (three digit)
D - day name short
DD - day name long
m - month of year (no leading zero)
mm - month of year (two digit)
M - month name short
MM - month name long
y - year (two digit)
yy - year (four digit)

Here is the reference for jQuery datepicker

6

votes

This is good to get formatted date

let date = new Date().toLocaleDateString("en", {year:"numeric", day:"2-digit", month:"2-digit"});
console.log(date);

6

votes

If by "current date" you are thinking about "today", then this trick may work for you:

> new Date(3600000*Math.floor(Date.now()/3600000))
2020-05-07T07:00:00.000Z

This way you are getting today Date instance with time 0:00:00.

The principle of operation is very simple: we take the current timestamp and divide it for 1 day expressed in milliseconds. We will get a fraction. By using Math.floor, we get rid of the fraction, so we get an integer. Now if we multiply it back by one day (again - in milliseconds), we get a date timestamp with the time exactly at the beginning of the day.

> now = Date.now()
1588837459929
> daysInMs = now/3600000
441343.73886916664
> justDays = Math.floor(daysInMs)
441343
> today = justDays*3600000
1588834800000
> new Date(today)
2020-05-07T07:00:00.000Z

Clean and simple.

How do I get the current date in JavaScript?

30 Answers

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