How to Convert a Date String to Timestamp in JavaScript?

Sometimes, we may want to convert a date to UNIX timestamp in JavaScript.

In this article, we’ll look at ways to convert a date to a timestamp in JavaScript.

Use the Date.parse Method

We can use the Date.parse method to convert the date string into a timestamp.

For instance, we can write:

const toTimestamp = (strDate) => {  
  const dt = Date.parse(strDate);  
  return dt / 1000;  
}  
console.log(toTimestamp('02/13/2020 23:31:30'));

We create the toTimestamp method that calls the Date.parse method with a date string to parse it into a timestamp.

The unit is in milliseconds, so we’ve to divide it by 1000 to convert it to seconds.

Use the getTime Method

We can use the getTime method of a Date instance to convert the date string into a timestamp.

To use it, we write:

const toTimestamp = (strDate) => {  
  const dt = new Date(strDate).getTime();  
  return dt / 1000;  
}  
console.log(toTimestamp('02/13/2020 23:31:30'));

We create the Date instance with the Date constructor.

Then we call getTime to return the timestamp in milliseconds.

So we’ve to divide that by 1000 to get the number of seconds.

Moment.js’s unix Method

We can use the moment.js’s unix method to return a timestamp.

For instance, we can write:

const toTimestamp = (strDate) => {  
  const dt = moment(strDate).unix();  
  return dt;  
}  
console.log(toTimestamp('02/13/2020 23:31:30'));

We pass strDate into the moment function to return a moment object with the time.

Then we can call the unix method on that to return the timestamp.

The unix method returns the timestamp in seconds so we don’t have to divide the returned result by 1000.

Conclusion

We can use plain JavaScript or momnent.js to convert a date string into a UNIX timestamp.