JavaScript: Get the current date

JavaScript Datetime: Exercise-2 with Solution

Get Current Date

Write a JavaScript function to get the current date.

Test Data :
console.log(curday('/'));
console.log(curday('-'));
Output :
"11/13/2014"
"11-13-2014"

Sample Solution:

JavaScript Code:

// Define a JavaScript function called curday with a parameter sp
var curday = function(sp){
    // Create a new Date object representing today's date
    today = new Date();
    // Get the day of the month
    var dd = today.getDate();
    // Get the month, adding 1 because JavaScript months are zero-based (January is 0)
    var mm = today.getMonth()+1; // As January is 0.
    // Get the full year
    var yyyy = today.getFullYear();

    // If the day of the month is less than 10, prepend '0' to it to ensure two digits
    if(dd<10) dd='0'+dd;
    // If the month is less than 10, prepend '0' to it to ensure two digits
    if(mm<10) mm='0'+mm;

    // Return the formatted date string with the specified separator
    return (mm+sp+dd+sp+yyyy);
};

// Output today's date formatted with '/' separator
console.log(curday('/'));
// Output today's date formatted with '-' separator
console.log(curday('-'));

Output:

06/19/2018
06-19-2018

Explanation:

In the exercise above -

• The code defines a JavaScript function named "curday()" with a single parameter 'sp', which represents the separator to be used in the formatted date string.
• Inside the function:
• It creates a new Date object called "today", representing the current date and time.
• It extracts the day of the month (dd), month (mm), and full year (yyyy) from the "today" object.
• Since JavaScript months are zero-based (January is 0), it adds 1 to the month value to get the correct month.
• It checks if the day of the month or the month itself is less than 10. If so, it prepends '0' to ensure that they are represented with two digits.
• After formatting the date components, the function returns a string representing the current date in the format 'mm/sp/dd/sp/yyyy', where 'sp' is the separator provided as an argument.
• The code then calls the "curday()" function twice:
• First with '/' separator and logs the result to the console using console.log(curday('/'));.
• Second with '-' separator and logs the result to the console using console.log(curday('-'));.

Flowchart:

Live Demo:

See the Pen JavaScript - Get the current date-date-ex- 2 by w3resource (@w3resource) on CodePen.

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a JavaScript function that returns the current date formatted with a given separator between month, day, and year.
• Write a JavaScript function that outputs the current date in both local and UTC formats.
• Write a JavaScript function that retrieves the current date and formats it in MM-DD-YYYY style using string manipulation.
• Write a JavaScript function that constructs a Date object for the current date and returns it as an ISO formatted string with custom separators.

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