Date.prototype.toTimeString()
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
ThetoTimeString() method ofDate instances returns a string representing the time portion of this date interpreted in the local timezone.
Try it
const event = new Date("August 19, 1975 23:15:30");console.log(event.toTimeString());// Expected output: "23:15:30 GMT+0200 (CEST)"// Note: your timezone may varySyntax
js
toTimeString()Parameters
None.
Return value
A string representing the time portion of the given date (see description for the format). Returns"Invalid Date" if the date isinvalid.
Description
Date instances refer to a specific point in time.toTimeString() interprets the date in the local timezone and formats thetime part in English. It always uses the format ofHH:mm:ss GMT±xxxx (TZ), where:
| Format String | Description |
|---|---|
HH | Hour, as two digits with leading zero if required |
mm | Minute, as two digits with leading zero if required |
ss | Seconds, as two digits with leading zero if required |
±xxxx | The local timezone's offset — two digits for hours and two digits for minutes (e.g.,-0500,+0800) |
TZ | The timezone's name (e.g.,PDT,PST) |
For example: "04:42:04 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)".
- If you only want to get thedate part, use
toDateString(). - If you want to get both the date and time, use
toString(). - If you want to make the date interpreted as UTC instead of local timezone, use
toUTCString(). - If you want to format the date in a more user-friendly format (e.g., localization), use
toLocaleTimeString().
Examples
Using toTimeString()
js
const d = new Date(0);console.log(d.toString()); // "Thu Jan 01 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)"console.log(d.toTimeString()); // "00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)"Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification # sec-date.prototype.totimestring |