How to convert a (javascript) date to the API timestamp format?

Question

When I am using this page for the Stack Exchange API /search path, I can see that it is generating time-stamps in this format:

fromdate=1380326400&todate=1380412800

What is this date format? How do I convert, to this time stamp, from

var date = new Date().getTime();

??

I got the specification from this doc , but I didn't get any method to convert, it is not just eliminating the millisecond values by dividing by 1000.

Answer 1

Since the .getTime() value is already in UTC, you can just divide by 1000, and round.

That is:

var apiDate = Math.round (new Date().getTime() / 1000);

works just fine.

apiDate is in "unix epoch time" and the API takes these values even if the API parameter is called a "Date".

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But, if you want to truncate to the date only, just use:

var dateTime = new Date ();
dateTime.setUTCHours   (0);
dateTime.setUTCMinutes (0);
dateTime.setUTCSeconds (0);

var apiDate = Math.round (dateTime.getTime() / 1000);

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See, also "How do I parse the dates from the API?".