javascript Date().getTime() is not a function

Question

I'm trying to compare some Dates in javascript.

For some reason, I'm getting "Tue May 01 2012 16:43:03 GMT+0900 (JST) has no method 'getTime'"

I started with this code inside a callback, but it was failing at getTime() on the line that creates var age:

for (var i = 0; i < array_of_usage_indices.length; i++) {
    store.get(array_of_usage_indices[i]['key'],function(may_need_gc) {
        if(may_need_gc) {
            var now = Date();
            var created = Date(may_need_gc['value']);
            var age = now.getTime()-created.getTime();
        }
    })
}

I've pared it down so my example page is literally just this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
        <title>date test</title>

    </head>

<body>

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
            var now = Date();
            alert(now.getTime());
            var t = Date().getTime();
</script>    
</body>
</html>

This is failing in Chrome 18.0.1025.168 and Firefox 13.0.

Screenshots of what I've tried:

screenshot no method 'getTime'

So my question:

~~wth?~~

Do I have to use ParseDate()? Why isn't this working?

score 62 · Accepted Answer · edited May 01 '12 at 08:25

62

Try using new keyword to instantiate a new object so instead of this

var now = Date();

try this

var now = new Date();

edited May 01 '12 at 08:25

Simon

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answered May 01 '12 at 08:24

Parv Sharma

12,279
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80

@clocksmith `Date.now()` (note: no parens) does work, `.getTime()` needs a Date object. Also see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12517359/performance-date-now-vs-date-gettime Docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/now and https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/getTime – handle Aug 25 '16 at 08:33
Awesome that it works, but my question is WHY? – RobertSzooba Mar 30 '21 at 14:16

score 28 · Answer 2 · edited May 01 '12 at 08:24

28

You need to use the new operator to create a Date object.

(new Date()).getTime()

edited May 01 '12 at 08:24

Ray Toal

82,964
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answered May 01 '12 at 08:22

Simon

37,485
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6

Thank you. I've given the green check to Parv because it seems you're okay on points for now. ;-) – Thunder Rabbit May 01 '12 at 08:36

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 07 '17 at 17:15

9

This will make 'now' as variable type as date:

var now = new Date();

This will get you time from 'now':

new Date(now).getTime();

edited Mar 07 '17 at 17:15

Hywel Rees

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answered Mar 07 '17 at 16:40

loyoliteabid

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4

javascript Date().getTime() is not a function

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