What do you mean by "picky"? var now = new Date(); var date = now.toDateString(); // Tue Nov 26 2013 var iso = now.toISOString(); // 2013-11-27T01:41:03.900Z var json = now.toJSON(); // 2013-11-27T01:41:03.900Z var lDate = now.toLocaleDateString(); // Tuesday, November 26, 2013 var lTime = now.toLocaleTimeString(); // 7:41:03 PM var locale = now.toLocaleString(); // Tuesday, November 26, 2013 7:41:03 PM var dStr = now.toString(); // Tue Nov 26 2013 19:41:03 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time) var time = now.toTimeString(); // 19:41:03 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time) var utc = now.toUTCString(); // Wed, 27 Nov 2013 01:41:03 GMT If those formats don't do it for you, the Date object also has methods to get the year/month/day/hour/minute/second/millisecond (with UTC versions of each), so you can build your own output format.