Question

Using NodeJS, I want to format a Date into the following string format:

var ts_hms = new Date(UTC);
ts_hms.format("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S");

How do I do that?

Answer 1

If you’re using Node.js, you’re sure to have EcmaScript 5, and so Date has a toISOString method. You’re asking for a slight modification of ISO8601:

new Date().toISOString()
> '2012-11-04T14:51:06.157Z'

So just cut a few things out, and you’re set:

new Date().toISOString().
  replace(/T/, ' ').      // replace T with a space
  replace(/\..+/, '')     // delete the dot and everything after
> '2012-11-04 14:55:45'

Or, in one line: new Date().toISOString().replace(/T/, ' ').replace(/\..+/, '')

ISO8601 is necessarily UTC (also indicated by the trailing Z on the first result), so you get UTC by default (always a good thing).