Getting current date and time in JavaScript

To get time and date you should use

    new Date().toLocaleString();

>> "09/08/2014, 2:35:56 AM"

To get only the date you should use

    new Date().toLocaleDateString();

>> "09/08/2014"

To get only the time you should use

    new Date().toLocaleTimeString();

>> "2:35:56 AM"

Or if you just want the time in the format hh:mm without AM/PM for US English

    new Date().toLocaleTimeString('en-US', { hour12: false, 
                                             hour: "numeric", 
                                             minute: "numeric"});
>> "02:35"

or for British English

    new Date().toLocaleTimeString('en-GB', { hour: "numeric", 
                                             minute: "numeric"});

>> "02:35"

Read more here.


.getMonth() returns a zero-based number so to get the correct month you need to add 1, so calling .getMonth() in may will return 4 and not 5.

So in your code we can use currentdate.getMonth()+1 to output the correct value. In addition:

  • .getDate() returns the day of the month <- this is the one you want
  • .getDay() is a separate method of the Date object which will return an integer representing the current day of the week (0-6) 0 == Sunday etc

so your code should look like this:

var currentdate = new Date(); 
var datetime = "Last Sync: " + currentdate.getDate() + "/"
                + (currentdate.getMonth()+1)  + "/" 
                + currentdate.getFullYear() + " @ "  
                + currentdate.getHours() + ":"  
                + currentdate.getMinutes() + ":" 
                + currentdate.getSeconds();

JavaScript Date instances inherit from Date.prototype. You can modify the constructor's prototype object to affect properties and methods inherited by JavaScript Date instances

You can make use of the Date prototype object to create a new method which will return today's date and time. These new methods or properties will be inherited by all instances of the Date object thus making it especially useful if you need to re-use this functionality.

// For todays date;
Date.prototype.today = function () { 
    return ((this.getDate() < 10)?"0":"") + this.getDate() +"/"+(((this.getMonth()+1) < 10)?"0":"") + (this.getMonth()+1) +"/"+ this.getFullYear();
}

// For the time now
Date.prototype.timeNow = function () {
     return ((this.getHours() < 10)?"0":"") + this.getHours() +":"+ ((this.getMinutes() < 10)?"0":"") + this.getMinutes() +":"+ ((this.getSeconds() < 10)?"0":"") + this.getSeconds();
}

You can then simply retrieve the date and time by doing the following:

var newDate = new Date();
var datetime = "LastSync: " + newDate.today() + " @ " + newDate.timeNow();

Or call the method inline so it would simply be -

var datetime = "LastSync: " + new Date().today() + " @ " + new Date().timeNow();

For true mysql style output use this function below: 2019/02/28 15:33:12

  • If you click the 'Run code snippet' button below
  • It will show you an simple realtime digital clock example
  • The demo will appear below the code snippet.

function getDateTime() {
        var now     = new Date(); 
        var year    = now.getFullYear();
        var month   = now.getMonth()+1; 
        var day     = now.getDate();
        var hour    = now.getHours();
        var minute  = now.getMinutes();
        var second  = now.getSeconds(); 
        if(month.toString().length == 1) {
             month = '0'+month;
        }
        if(day.toString().length == 1) {
             day = '0'+day;
        }   
        if(hour.toString().length == 1) {
             hour = '0'+hour;
        }
        if(minute.toString().length == 1) {
             minute = '0'+minute;
        }
        if(second.toString().length == 1) {
             second = '0'+second;
        }   
        var dateTime = year+'/'+month+'/'+day+' '+hour+':'+minute+':'+second;   
         return dateTime;
    }

    // example usage: realtime clock
    setInterval(function(){
        currentTime = getDateTime();
        document.getElementById("digital-clock").innerHTML = currentTime;
    }, 1000);
<div id="digital-clock"></div>