Get current time using JavaScript

In this blog, let us understand the different methods in which we can obtain the current date & time in JavaScript.

Table of Contents

  • Date object
  • Get Current Year
  • Get Current Month
  • Get Current Time and Date
  • Other Related Concepts

Date Object

Javascript has a built-in object called Date, we will be using this to obtain the desired dates and times using different methods. Firstly, let us look at the different ways to create the date object.

We could create a date object in four different ways 

new Date()
new Date(year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds)
new Date(milliseconds)
new Date(date string)

new Date() new Date() creates a new date object with the current date and time:

Example 
var d = new Date();

new Date(year, month, ...) new Date(year, month, ...) creates a new date object with a specified date and time.

7 numbers specify year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and millisecond (in that order):

Example 

var d = new Date(2021, 03, 16, 17, 55, 44, 0);

JavaScript counts months from 0 to 11. This means that January is 0. December is 11.

new Date(milliseconds) JavaScript stores date as the number of milliseconds since January 01, 1970, UTC

new Date(milliseconds) creates a new date object as zero time plus milliseconds:

Example 
var d = new Date(0);

One thing to keep in mind about the date object is that it is a static object.

Now that we have looked at the different methods of creating a date object, we shall use the first method and get the specific details we need.

Get Current Year

getFullYear() method can be used to get current year from the current date object

Example: 
var d = new Date();
var year = d.getFullYear();

console.log(year);
 //Output: 2021


Get Current Month:

Similar to the year, we can also get the current month using the getMonth() method.

Example: 
var d = new Date();
var month = d.getMonth();

console.log(month);
 //Output: 3

As mentioned before, the months are calculated from 0 to 11 instead of 1 to 12. To get an output in a readable format, we could just add 1 to the output.

Get Current Date:

The getDate() method can be used to get the day of the month.

Example: 
var d = new Date();
var day = d.getDate();

console.log(day);
//Output: 16

Get current Time and Date

Similarly, we can use the following methods to get current time in seconds, minutes, and hours separately and also together.

var d = new Date();
var hr = d.getHours();console.log(hr);
var min = d.getMinutes();console.log(min);
var sec = d.getSeconds();console.log(sec);
var time = d.toLocaleTimeString();console.log(time);
var date = d.toLocaleDateString();console.log(date);
var datetime = d.toLocaleString();console.log(datetime);

//Output: 
12
44
24
12:44:24 PM
4/16/2021
4/16/2021, 12:44:24 PM