ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

Date.getTime( ) Method — retrieve the number of milliseconds between January 1, 1970 and the time of a date object

Availability

Flash 5

Synopsis

date.getTime( )

Returns

An integer expressing the number of milliseconds between the time of date and midnight, January 1, 1970. Positive if after January 1, 1970; negative if before.

Description

Internally, all dates are represented as a single number—the number of milliseconds between the time of the date and midnight, January 1, 1970. The getTime( ) method gives us access to that number of milliseconds so that we may use it to construct other dates or to compare the elapsed time between two dates.

Example

Suppose we place the following code on the 10th frame of a movie:

time1 = new Date( );

Then we place the following code on the 20th frame of a movie:

time2 = new Date( );

With the following code, we can determine the amount of time that elapsed, in milliseconds, between the 10th and 20th frames of our movie:

elapsedTime = time2.getTime() - time1.getTime( );

Note that Flash’s global getTimer( ) function also gives us access to elapsed time in a movie.

See Also

Date.setTime( ), getTimer( )