Getting Date and Time in Deno

deno
Published on April 4, 2021

In Deno date and time can be handled through the built-in Javascript Date object. Deno also provides the standard datetime library which makes it very easy to get date & time in various formats.

Getting Date & Time Without Using External Library

The standard Javascript Date object can be used to get date & time. This is built-in to Deno and requires no import of external libraries.

// new Date object
let date_ob = new Date();

Date object has several methods to get date & time values.

  • getDate() : returns numeric day of the month (1-31)
  • getMonth() : returns numeric month (0-11)
  • getFullYear() : returns 4-digit year
  • getHours() : returns numeric hour, 24 hour format (0-23)
  • getMinutes() : returns numeric minute (0-59)
  • getSeconds() : returns numeric seconds (0-59)

Using these methods, date-time string of the required format (for example YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss etc) can be created.

let date_ob = new Date();

// current date as DD
let date = ("0" + date_ob.getDate()).slice(-2);

// current month as MM
let month = ("0" + (date_ob.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2);

// current year as YYYY
let year = date_ob.getFullYear();

// current hours as hh
let hours = date_ob.getHours();

// current minutes as mm
let minutes = date_ob.getMinutes();

// current seconds as ss
let seconds = date_ob.getSeconds();

// current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
console.log(year + "-" + month + "-" + date);

// current date & time in YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss format
console.log(year + "-" + month + "-" + date + " " + hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + seconds);

// current time in hh:mm format
console.log(hours + ":" + minutes);

Getting Date & Time Using datetime Library

Deno provides the standard datetime library which contains helper functions dealing in date & time. Standard libraries are reviewed by Deno, so they can be used without hesitation.

The format() method of the library can be used to format date & time as per requirement.

import { format } from "https://deno.land/std@0.91.0/datetime/mod.ts";

// current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
console.log(format(new Date(), "yyyy-MM-dd"));

// current date & time in YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss format
console.log(format(new Date(), "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));

// current time in hh:mm format
console.log(format(new Date(), "HH:mm"));

The following symbols are allowed in the format() method while creating a date-time string.

  • yyyy : 4-digit year
  • yy : 2-digit year
  • M : numeric month (1-12)
  • MM : 2-digit numeric month (01-12)
  • d : numeric day (1-31)
  • dd : 2-digit numeric day (01-31)
  • H : numeric hour, 24 hour format (0-23)
  • HH : 2-digit numeric hour, 24 hour format (00-23)
  • h : numeric hour, 12 hour format (0-11)
  • hh : 2-digit numeric hour, 12 hour format (00-11)
  • m : numeric minute (0-59)
  • mm : 2-digit numeric minute (00-59)
  • s : numeric second (0-59)
  • ss : 2-digit numeric second (00-59)
  • a : AM or PM
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