Introduction
In modern web development, timestamps are a common way to represent time. A timestamp typically indicates the number of seconds or milliseconds that have elapsed since the Unix epoch (January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC). Converting these timestamps into human-readable date-time formats is a frequent task. This article will explore various methods to convert timestamps to date-time in JavaScript.
Understanding Timestamps
Timestamps come in two primary forms:
- Seconds-based Timestamps: These represent the number of seconds since the Unix epoch.
- Milliseconds-based Timestamps: These represent the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch.
JavaScript’s Date object can handle millisecond-based timestamps natively, making conversions straightforward.
Converting Milliseconds-based Timestamps
JavaScript’s Date object can directly convert a millisecond-based timestamp into a date-time object.
const timestamp = 1627890000000; // Milliseconds-based timestamp
const date = new Date(timestamp);
console.log(date.toString()); // Outputs the complete date-time string
Converting Seconds-based Timestamps
For seconds-based timestamps, convert the timestamp to milliseconds first, then use the Date object.
const timestampInSeconds = 1627890000; // Seconds-based timestamp
const timestampInMilliseconds = timestampInSeconds * 1000; // Convert to milliseconds
const date = new Date(timestampInMilliseconds);
console.log(date.toString()); // Outputs the complete date-time string
Formatting Date-Time
Once a Date object is BTC Users Number created, various methods can format it into more readable forms.
Using toLocaleString
The toLocaleString method formats the date-time according to specific locale settings.
const date = new Date(1627890000000);
console.log(date.toLocaleString('en-US')); // US format
console.log(date.toLocaleString('zh-CN')); // China format
Using toISOString
The toISOString method formats the date-time in ISO 8601 standard format.
const date = new Date(1627890000000);
console.log(date.toISOString()); // Outputs ISO 8601 format
Custom Formatting
For custom formats, extract individual components and concatenate them.
const date = new Date(1627890000000);
const year = date.getFullYear();
const month = String(date.getMonth() + 1).padStart(2, '0'); // Months are zero-based
const day = String(date.getDate()).padStart(2, '0');
const hours = String(date.getHours()).padStart(2, '0');
const minutes = String(date.getMinutes()).padStart(2, '0');
const seconds = String(date.getSeconds()).padStart(2, '0');
const formattedDate = `${year}-${month}-${day} ${hours}:${minutes}:${seconds}`;
console.log(formattedDate); // Outputs the custom formatted date-time string
Using Third-Party Libraries
For more complex date-time manipulations, third-party libraries such as Moment.js and date-fns can be helpful.
Using Moment.js
First, install Moment.js:
npm install moment
Then, use Moment.js for Australia Phone Number List conversion and formatting:
const moment = require('moment');
const timestamp = 1627890000000;
const date = moment(timestamp);
console.log(date.format('YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss')); // Outputs the formatted date-time string
Using date-fns
First, install date-fns:
npm install date-fns
Then, use date-fns for conversion and formatting:
const { format } = require('date-fns');
const timestamp = 1627890000000;
const date = new Date(timestamp);
console.log(format(date, 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss')); // Outputs the formatted date-time string
Summary
Converting timestamps to date-time is a common task in web development. JavaScript’s Date object, along with third-party libraries like Moment.js and date-fns, provides various methods to perform this conversion efficiently. Choosing the right method and tools can streamline date-time handling, making the code more readable and maintainable.
