dateToUnix()

Returns a Unix timestamp from a given date object, string, or milliseconds timestamp.

Usage

import { dateToUnix } from 'easy-dates';

const dateObject = new Date(Date.now()) // Sat Mar 19 2022 23:46:03 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
const millisecondsDateStamp = new Date(Date.now()).getTime(); // 1647747963147

dateToUnix(dateObject) // 1647747963
dateToUnix(millisecondsDateStamp) // 1647747963

Prop types

prop	type	required	default
date	any	yes	null

Using a string prop?

Does this work to convert a locale date string back to a date or timestamp too? It does. But you should try to avoid it. Here's an example.

locale string

const localeDateString = new Date(millisecondsDateStamp).toLocaleString('en-CA') // '2022-03-19, 11:46:03 p.m.'

dateToUnix(localeDateString) // 1647734940

As you can see, the first two conversions (a date object or milliseconds timestamp) are exact, however converting a locale date string back into a date object or timestamp is not.

Similar behaviour can be observed when casting an object as a string.

date object as string

const someDateObject = new Date(Date.now()) // Sun Mar 20 2022 23:21:10 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

dateToUnix("Sun Mar 20 2022 23:21:10 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)") // 1647919810

When are strings ok to use?

When the value of the string is a number.

const someTimeNumber = new Date(Date.now()).getTime();

dateToUnix("1647833600771") // 1647833600