What is the Purpose of the Unary Plus Operator in the Code \" new Date\" in JavaScript?

Unary Plus Operator in JavaScript: Uncovering the Mystery of " new Date"

In JavaScript, you may have encountered the following code:

function fn() {
    return +new Date;
}

This code snippet returns a timestamp instead of a Date object. But what exactly does that plus sign do? Let's delve into its significance.

The plus sign in this context is known as the unary plus operator. It performs numeric conversion on the operand expression after it. In our case, it converts a new Date object to a number. This is equivalent to:

function(){ return Number(new Date); }

The unary plus operator is a useful way to explicitly convert values to numbers. It can be particularly useful when you need to ensure precision or perform mathematical operations.

For a more comprehensive understanding, refer to the following resources:

• XKCD Article on Unary Plus: http://xkr.us/articles/javascript/unary-add
• MDN Documentation on Unary Plus: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Unary_plus

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