javascript odd syntax: c.name=i+ +new Date;

Question

colorbox v1.3.15 from colorpowered.com has this javascript in it's minified code:

c.name=i+ +new Date;

this seems to run perfectly, should it?

Answer 1

The unary + operator is used to convert an object to a number by calling valueOf() from that object. If a number is not returned, the operation returns NaN

You can customize this by editing the valueOf function for any object, like so:

var foo = {};
foo.valueOf = function () { return 9001; };
console.log(+foo); // 9001

Date's valueOf() simply returns getTime() (according to Mozilla)