Date .getFullYear() / getMonth() / getDate()

// Returns the year as a 4-digit number.
var year = date.getFullYear();

// Returns the month. Zero-based: January is 0, December is 11.
var month = date.getMonth();

// Returns the day of the month.
var day = date.getDate();

// Returns the day of the week. 0 is Sunday, 6 is Saturday.
var weekday = date.getDay();

// Returns the hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds.
var hours = date.getHours();
var minutes = date.getMinutes();
var seconds = date.getSeconds();
var ms = date.getMilliseconds();

// Returns the timestamp.
var timestamp = date.getTime();

var date = new Date(2025, 3, 15, 14, 30, 45); // April 15, 2025, 14:30:45

// Retrieve each component.
console.log(date.getFullYear()); // Outputs 2025.
console.log(date.getMonth()); // Outputs 3. April is 3 because months are zero-based.
console.log(date.getDate()); // Outputs 15.
console.log(date.getDay()); // Outputs 2. Tuesday.
console.log(date.getHours()); // Outputs 14.
console.log(date.getMinutes()); // Outputs 30.
console.log(date.getSeconds()); // Outputs 45.

// Practical example: format a date as "YYYY/MM/DD"
var now = new Date();
var y = now.getFullYear();
var m = now.getMonth() + 1; // Add 1 because months are zero-based.
var d = now.getDate();
console.log(y + "/" + m + "/" + d);

// Practical example: display the day of the week as a name
var weekdays = ["Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat"];
var dayName = weekdays[now.getDay()];
console.log(y + "/" + m + "/" + d + " (" + dayName + ")");

// Practical example: zero-pad a number to two digits
function zeroPad(num) {
	return ("0" + num).slice(-2);
}
var timeStr = zeroPad(now.getHours()) + ":" + zeroPad(now.getMinutes());
console.log(timeStr); // Outputs a time like "09:05" with leading zeros.

The Date getter methods retrieve each component of a date and time as a number. They are useful whenever you need to break a date into individual parts, such as when building a calendar or formatting a date string.

The most common pitfall is that date.getMonth() is zero-based. Always add 1 when displaying the month to users. Similarly, date.getDay() is zero-based, where 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday. To display a day name, the typical approach is to create an array of names and use the returned number as an index, as shown in the sample code.

When formatting a date as a string, you can either combine these getter methods yourself, or use date.toLocaleDateString() to format the date according to a locale.