How to convert date to timestamp?

Question

I want to convert date to timestamp, my input is 26-02-2012. I used

new Date(myDate).getTime();

It says NaN.. Can any one tell how to convert this?

Finitude

possible duplicate of #9344471 – Amylaceous

you may want to take a look at the date.js library: datejs.com – Tyr

Did you use Date(myDate).getTime() (what you've marked up as code), or is the word "new" prior to it meant to be part of the code? The more effort you put in, the better the answers you get will be. – Adiathermancy

@rsbarro: Except it doesn't seem to be maintained anymore (and there are outstanding bugs). MomentJS seems quite good, though. – Adiathermancy

@T.J.Crowder I've used date.js and it's worked for what I've needed it for, but you're right it has not been actively worked on in some time. I will check out momentjs. Thanks! – Tyr

@rsbarro: This is the one (a parsing bug) that bit me: jsbin.com/inudib The version used on the datejs.com home page is different from the latest "release" and doesn't have this problem (but has others that the latest "release" doesn't). – Adiathermancy

You need parenthesis around the new Date() ... So like, (new Date("2022-03-02")).getTime() – Itemize

Answer 1

Split the string into its parts and provide them directly to the Date constructor:

Update:

var myDate = "26-02-2012";
myDate = myDate.split("-");
var newDate = new Date( myDate[2], myDate[1] - 1, myDate[0]);
console.log(newDate.getTime());

Updated: Also, you can use a regular expression to split the string, for example:

const dtStr = "26/02/2012";
const [d, m, y] = dtStr.split(/-|\//); // splits "26-02-2012" or "26/02/2012"
const date = new Date(y, m - 1, d);
console.log(date.getTime());

Fasano

Unfortunately, this does not work in Safari5, as it returns NaN. In Safari you have to use the other possible constructor new Date(year, month, day);, regarding this example: new Date(myDate[2], myDate[1], myDate[0]); – Capacitate

Instead of converting the date string from "European" to "American" format, it's better to convert it to ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD), which is guaranteed to be understood by Date(), and is, generally speaking, the most interoperable format for date strings. – Insulation

Note: new Date(newDate).getTime() will produce a timestamp in millisecond resolution. – Honig

For seconds use: Math.floor(new Date(newDate).getTime() / 1000) – Whereunto

C'mon, seriously they should really think of a better naming instead of getTime()! – Gastrointestinal

Answer 2

Try this function, it uses the Date.parse() method and doesn't require any custom logic:

function toTimestamp(strDate){
   var datum = Date.parse(strDate);
   return datum/1000;
}
alert(toTimestamp('02/13/2009 23:31:30'));

Tondatone

Using the built–in parser is not recommended. – Sarnoff

@Sarnoff can you please include an argument why it is not recommended? This would add value and understanding to your comment. – Minette

@dimib—see this answer to Why does Date.parse give incorrect results?. – Sarnoff

why have you chosen to use that date format? I want to understand you used mm/dd/yyyy, right? Why the reason? Does using a different format has an effect? – Rooke

I would recommend adding a Math.floor around the return datum/1000; line to prevent a decimal timestamp as it would make no sense for one to leave out the decimals after attempting to remove the millisecond precision via dividing by 1000. You'd usually want to either leave it as it is in milliseconds (by omitting the /1000) or get the value in seconds in the form of a whole number (by wrapping it in a Math.floor). – Gris

Answer 3

this refactored code will do it

let toTimestamp = strDate => Date.parse(strDate)

this works on all modern browsers except ie8-

Roi

Great answer. Note it creates a millisecond timestamp. For a timestamp with seconds accuracy you can Date.parse(strDate) / 1000; instead of Date.parse(strDate). – Resemblance

Answer 4

There are two problems here. First, you can only call getTime on an instance of the date. You need to wrap new Date in brackets or assign it to variable.

Second, you need to pass it a string in a proper format.

Working example:

(new Date("2012-02-26")).getTime();

Embargo

There's no need of wrapping the date instant in a bracket. Only a proper string format is required. – Bangtail

Answer 5

UPDATE: In case you came here looking for current timestamp

Date.now(); //as suggested by Wilt

or

var date      = new Date();
var timestamp = date.getTime();

or simply

new Date().getTime();
/* console.log(new Date().getTime()); */

Canaigre

Yes or simply: Date.now() which makes your two suggestions suddenly look very complicated. Visit for more details on this function the documentation on MDN here. – Fowler

Answer 6

You need just to reverse your date digit and change - with ,:

new Date(2012,01,26).getTime(); // 02 becomes 01 because getMonth() method returns the month (from 0 to 11)

In your case:

var myDate="26-02-2012";
myDate=myDate.split("-");
new Date(parseInt(myDate[2], 10), parseInt(myDate[1], 10) - 1 , parseInt(myDate[0]), 10).getTime();

P.S. UK locale does not matter here.

Thorite

That date format is also invalid, and won't work reliably cross-browser and cross-locale (it doesn't, for instance, for me in Chrome with the UK locale). If you're going to suggest a format, suggest one that's actually documented to work. – Adiathermancy

I get the example from developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/…. I just forgot to put away the string. Now it works. – Thorite

Okay, at least now the code above isn't using an invalid date format -- it's just giving the wrong date, for two separate reasons. Above you've defined the date March 2nd, 2014 (you have the field order messed up). And if the fields were in the right order, you'd be defining the date March 26th, 2012 (month values start at zero). But as the OP has a string, not a series of numbers, it's not all that useful even if you addressed those issues. – Adiathermancy

@T.J. Crowder thanks for your suggestions. I fixed the code as you said converting the String to a Number. Merci. – Thorite

The first code example is still wrong, and using Number on strings starting with a 0 is problematic on some engines -- use parseInt and specify a radix. – Adiathermancy

Again: The first code example is still wrong. With respect, this is not helpful, recommend just deleting and moving on -- or, of course, really rigorously thinking it through and double-checking yourself. Bad advice is usually worse than no advice. – Adiathermancy

let us continue this discussion in chat – Thorite

please note that in the second part it most certainly should be parseInt(myDate[0], 10)) instead of parseInt(myDate[0]), 10), otherwise 10 would not be the radix but the next argument of the Date() constructor, which is the hour – Hydrophilic

Finally got to a decent answer, but parseInt isn't necessary, just pass the values to the constructor (but still subtract 1 from the month number). :-) – Sarnoff

Answer 7

To convert (ISO) date to Unix timestamp, I ended up with a timestamp 3 characters longer than needed so my year was somewhere around 50k...

I had to devide it by 1000: new Date('2012-02-26').getTime() / 1000

Goodkin

Answer 8

JUST A REMINDER

Date.parse("2022-08-04T04:02:10.909Z")
// 1659585730909

Date.parse(new Date("2022-08-04T04:02:10.909Z"))
// 1659585730000 (milliseconds are ignored)

Viviennevivify

Answer 9

function getTimeStamp() {
       var now = new Date();
       return ((now.getMonth() + 1) + '/' + (now.getDate()) + '/' + now.getFullYear() + " " + now.getHours() + ':'
                     + ((now.getMinutes() < 10) ? ("0" + now.getMinutes()) : (now.getMinutes())) + ':' + ((now.getSeconds() < 10) ? ("0" + now
                     .getSeconds()) : (now.getSeconds())));
}

Castalia

Answer 10

Your string isn't in a format that the Date object is specified to handle. You'll have to parse it yourself, use a date parsing library like MomentJS or the older (and not currently maintained, as far as I can tell) DateJS, or massage it into the correct format (e.g., 2012-02-29) before asking Date to parse it.

Why you're getting NaN: When you ask new Date(...) to handle an invalid string, it returns a Date object which is set to an invalid date (new Date("29-02-2012").toString() returns "Invalid date"). Calling getTime() on a date object in this state returns NaN.

Adiathermancy

@benvds: Cool, thanks. Although I find the comment "Also, it is non-destructive to the DOM" a bit odd... I expect what they meant was that it doesn't change the Date object (which has nothing to do with the DOM). – Adiathermancy

Answer 11

For those who wants to have readable timestamp in format of, yyyymmddHHMMSS

> (new Date()).toISOString().replace(/[^\d]/g,'')              // "20190220044724404"
> (new Date()).toISOString().replace(/[^\d]/g,'').slice(0, -3) // "20190220044724"
> (new Date()).toISOString().replace(/[^\d]/g,'').slice(0, -9) // "20190220"

Usage example: a backup file extension. /my/path/my.file.js.20190220

Karisakarissa

Be aware that toISOString converts your date to UTC, so might not always have the desired outcome. – Herra

Answer 12

The below code will convert the current date into the timestamp.

var currentTimeStamp = Date.parse(new Date());
console.log(currentTimeStamp);

Thallus

Code-only answers are discouraged on Stack Overflow because they don't explain how it solves the problem. Please edit your answer to explain what this code does and how it answers the question, so that it is useful to the OP as well as other users with similar issues. – Mcquoid

Answer 13

/**
 * Date to timestamp
 * @param  string template
 * @param  string date
 * @return string
 * @example         datetotime("d-m-Y", "26-02-2012") return 1330207200000
 */
function datetotime(template, date){
    date = date.split( template[1] );
    template = template.split( template[1] );
    date = date[ template.indexOf('m') ]
        + "/" + date[ template.indexOf('d') ]
        + "/" + date[ template.indexOf('Y') ];

    return (new Date(date).getTime());
}

Golly

Answer 14

The first answer is fine however Using react typescript would complain because of split('') for me the method tha worked better was.

parseInt((new Date("2021-07-22").getTime() / 1000).toFixed(0))

Happy to help.

Decanter

Answer 15

In some cases, it appears that some dates are stubborn, that is, even with a date format, like "2022-06-29 15:16:21", you still get null or NaN. I got to resolve mine by including a "T" in the empty space, that is:

const inputDate = "2022-06-29 15:16:21";
const newInputDate = inputDate.replace(" ", "T");

const timeStamp = new Date(newInputDate).getTime();

And this worked fine for me! Cheers!

Wilke

Answer 16

It should have been in this standard date format YYYY-MM-DD, to use below equation. You may have time along with example: 2020-04-24 16:51:56 or 2020-04-24T16:51:56+05:30. It will work fine but date format should like this YYYY-MM-DD only.

var myDate = "2020-04-24";
var timestamp = +new Date(myDate)

Fleawort

Answer 17

You can use valueOf method

new Date().valueOf()

Obsequent

Answer 18

Here I am converting the current date to a timestamp and then I take the timestamp and convert it to the current date back, with us showing how to convert date to timestamp and timestamp to date.

var date = new Date();
var timestamp = date.getTime();
console.log(timestamp) // 1654636718244

var actual = new Date(timestamp)
console.log(actual) // Tue Jun 07 2022 18:18:38 GMT-0300 (Horário Padrão de Brasília)

Neodarwinism

NOTE:: Date.parse("2022-08-04T04:02:10.909Z") >> 1659585730909 While Date.parse(new Date("2022-08-04T04:02:10.909Z")) >> 1659585730000 – Viviennevivify

Answer 19

The simplest and accurate way would be to add the unary operator before the date

console.log(`Time stamp is: ${Number(+new Date())}`)

Eudemonism

Answer 20

Answers have been provided by other developers but in my own way, you can do this on the fly without creating any user defined function as follows:

var timestamp = Date.parse("26-02-2012".split('-').reverse().join('-'));
alert(timestamp); // returns 1330214400000

Cotta

Answer 21

Simply performing some arithmetic on a Date object will return the timestamp as a number. This is useful for compact notation. I find this is the easiest way to remember, as the method also works for converting numbers cast as string types back to number types.

let d = new Date();
console.log(d, d * 1);

Mims

Answer 22

This would do the trick if you need to add time also new Date('2021-07-22 07:47:05.842442+00').getTime()

This would also work without Time new Date('2021-07-22 07:47:05.842442+00').getTime()

This would also work but it won't Accept Time new Date('2021/07/22').getTime()

And Lastly if all did not work use this new Date(year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds)

Note for Month it the count starts at 0 so Jan === 0 and Dec === 11

Ware

Answer 23

+new Date(myDate) this should convert myDate to timeStamp

Bruise

This is a duplicate answer. – Citation

Answer 24

it that simple but you have to make sure to use american date format

    function MygetTime(date){
return (new Date(date).getTime())
}
console.log(MygetTime("03-13-2023"))

Keirakeiser

Answer 25

I use this to get my time stamp: Date.parse("2000-03-04 09:10:43")/1000;

Corriveau

Answer 26

2024 UPDATE

No package needed

const timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)

Bream