JavaScript:
Getting the current date

How to:

In vanilla JavaScript, the Date object is used to work with dates and times. Here’s how you can get the current date and time:

const currentDate = new Date();
console.log(currentDate); // Example output: Fri Apr 14 2023 12:34:56 GMT+0100 (British Summer Time)

To display only the date in a more user-friendly format, you can use methods like toLocaleDateString():

console.log(currentDate.toLocaleDateString()); // Example output: 4/14/2023

For more control over the format, third-party libraries like Moment.js or date-fns are very popular, though it’s good to be aware that Moment.js is now considered a legacy project in maintenance mode.

Using Moment.js:

const moment = require('moment'); // assuming Node.js or using a module bundler
const formattedDate = moment().format('YYYY-MM-DD');
console.log(formattedDate); // Example output: 2023-04-14

With date-fns, which emphasizes modularization allowing you to only import what you need:

const { format } = require('date-fns');
const formattedDate = format(new Date(), 'yyyy-MM-dd');
console.log(formattedDate); // Example output: 2023-04-14

Each approach offers different levels of convenience and flexibility for working with dates in JavaScript, from the built-in Date object to more sophisticated formatting and manipulation capabilities available through libraries.