JavaScript: Display the current day and time in a specific format

JavaScript Basic: Exercise-1 with Solution

Write a JavaScript program to display the current day and time in the following format.
Today is : Tuesday.
Current time is : 10 PM : 30 : 38

Pictorial Presentation:

Sample Solution:

JavaScript Code:

// Get the current date and time
var today = new Date();

// Get the day of the week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday)
var day = today.getDay();

// Array of day names
var daylist = ["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"];

// Display the current day
console.log("Today is: " + daylist[day] + ".");

// Get the current hour, minute, and second
var hour = today.getHours();
var minute = today.getMinutes();
var second = today.getSeconds();

// Determine if it's AM or PM
var prepand = (hour >= 12) ? " PM " : " AM ";

// Convert 24-hour format to 12-hour format
hour = (hour >= 12) ? hour - 12 : hour;

// Check for special cases when hour is 0
if (hour === 0 && prepand === ' PM ') {
    if (minute === 0 && second === 0) {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' Noon';
    } else {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' PM';
    }
}

// Check for special cases when hour is 0
if (hour === 0 && prepand === ' AM ') {
    if (minute === 0 && second === 0) {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' Midnight';
    } else {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' AM';
    }
}

// Display the current time
console.log("Current Time: " + hour + prepand + " : " + minute + " : " + second); 

Output:

Today is : Tuesday.
Current Time : 10 PM  : 30 : 38

Live Demo:

See the Pen JavaScript current day and time - basic-ex-2 by w3resource (@w3resource) on CodePen.

Explanations:

Declaring a JavaScript date : In JavaScript Date objects are based on a time value that is the number of milliseconds since 1 January, 1970 UTC. You can declare a date in the following ways :

new Date();
new Date(value);
new Date(dateString);
new Date(year, month[, day[, hour[, minutes[, seconds[, milliseconds]]]]]);

The getDay() method is used to get the day of the week for the specified date according to local time, where 0 represents Sunday. The value returned by getDay() is an integer corresponding to the day of the week: 0 for Sunday, 1 for Monday, 2 for Tuesday, and so on.

The getHours() method is used to get the hour for a given date, according to local time. The value returned by getHours() is an integer between 0 and 23.

The getMinutes() method is used to get the minutes in the specified date according to local time. The value returned by getMinutes() is an integer between 0 and 59.

The getSeconds() method is used to get the seconds in the specified date according to local time. The value returned by getSeconds() is an integer between 0 and 59.

AM and PM : AM stands for 'ante meridiem', which means 'before noon' in Latin, while PM stands for 'post meridiem', which means 'after noon' in Latin.
12-Hour Periods : Nowadays most clocks are 12-hour clocks – they divide the 24 hours in a day into two 12-hour periods.
Ante meridiem: Before noon - Between midnight (0:00) & noon (12:00)
Post meridiem: After noon Between noon (12:00) & midnight (0:00)

Flowchart:

ES6 Version:

// Get the current date and time
const today = new Date();

// Get the day of the week (0-6, where 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday)
const day = today.getDay();

// Array of day names
const daylist = ["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"];

// Display the current day
console.log(`Today is: ${daylist[day]}.`);

// Get the current hour, minute, and second
let hour = today.getHours();
const minute = today.getMinutes();
const second = today.getSeconds();

// Determine if it's AM or PM
let prepand = (hour >= 12) ? " PM " : " AM ";

// Convert 24-hour format to 12-hour format
hour = (hour >= 12) ? hour - 12 : hour;

// Check for special cases when hour is 0 and it's PM
if (hour === 0 && prepand === ' PM ') {
    // Check if minute and second are also 0
    if (minute === 0 && second === 0) {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' Noon';
    } else {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' PM';
    }
}

// Check for special cases when hour is 0 and it's AM
if (hour === 0 && prepand === ' AM ') {
    // Check if minute and second are also 0
    if (minute === 0 && second === 0) {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' Midnight';
    } else {
        hour = 12;
        prepand = ' AM';
    }
}

// Display the current time
console.log(`Current Time: ${hour}${prepand} : ${minute} : ${second}`);

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