Conversion of date into long format, How it works?

Question

I was trying to convert date object into long format (may be in milliseconds format) as we do in java.
So to fulfill my need, after some trial and error, I found below way which works for me:

var date = new Date();  
var longFormat = date*1;  // dont know what it does internally
console.log(longFormat); // output was 1380625095292  

To verify, I reverse it using new Date(longFormat); and it gave me correct output. In short I was able to fulfill my need some how, but I am still blank what multiplication does internally ? When I tried to multiply current date with digit 2, it gave me some date of year 2057 !! does anyone know, what exactly happening ?

Answer 1

The long format displays the number of ticks after 01.01.1970, so for now its about 43 years.

* operator forces argument to be cast to number, I suppose, Date object has such casting probably with getTime().

You double the number of milliseconds - you get 43 more years, hence the 2057 (or so) year.

Answer 2

What you are getting when you multiply, is ticks

Visit: How to convert JavaScript date object into ticks

Also, when you * 2 it, you get the double value of ticks, so the date is of future

var date = new Date()
var ticks = date.getTime()

ref: Javascript Date Ticks

getTime returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970. So when you * 1 it, you might have got value of this milliseconds. When you * 2 it, those milliseconds are doubled, and you get date of 2057!!