Node.js – How to generate timestamp unix epoch format?

by

The native JavaScript Date system works in milliseconds as opposed to seconds, but otherwise, it is the same “epoch time” as in UNIX.

You can round down the fractions of a second and get the UNIX epoch by doing:

Math.floor(+new Date() / 1000)

Update: As Guillermo points out, an alternate syntax may be more readable:

Math.floor(new Date().getTime() / 1000)

The + in the first example is a JavaScript quirk that forces evaluation as a number, which has the same effect of converting to milliseconds. The second version does this explicitly.

Leave a Comment