How can I get the current datetime in the format "2014-04-01:08:00:00" in Node?

Seems that there is no good way to do it with original code unless using Regex. There are some modules such as Moment.js though.

If you are using npm:

npm install moment --save

Then in your code:

var moment = require('moment');
moment().format('yyyy-mm-dd:hh:mm:ss');

That may be much easier to understand.

What about:

new Date().toString().replace(/T/, ':').replace(/\.\w*/, '');

Returns for me:

2014-07-14:13:41:23

But the more safe way is using Date class methods which works in javascript (browser) and node.js:

var date = new Date();

function getDateStringCustom(oDate) {
    var sDate;
    if (oDate instanceof Date) {
        sDate = oDate.getYear() + 1900
            + ':'
            + ((oDate.getMonth() + 1 < 10) ? '0' + (oDate.getMonth() + 1) : oDate.getMonth() + 1)
            + ':' + oDate.getDate()
            + ':' + oDate.getHours()
            + ':' + ((oDate.getMinutes() < 10) ? '0' + (oDate.getMinutes()) : oDate.getMinutes())
            + ':' + ((oDate.getSeconds() < 10) ? '0' + (oDate.getSeconds()) : oDate.getSeconds());
    } else {
        throw new Error("oDate is not an instance of Date");
    }
    return sDate;
}

alert(getDateStringCustom(date));

Returns in node.js: /usr/local/bin/node date.js 2014:07:14:16:13:10

And in Firebug: 2014:07:14:16:14:31

Install moment using

npm install moment --save

And in your code import the moment like this.

var moment = require('moment')
var created = moment().format('YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss')