How do I reduce this code to one line?

Question

How do I reduce this code to one line?

I'm very new to javascript, node.js and express. My question is, how do I refactor the following code to make it one line inside the function?

exports.about = function(req, res){
 var mytime = new Date();
 res.render('about', {title: 'about page', time: mytime.toLocaleDateString() });
};

In other words, is there a way I can compress the var mytime = new Date(); and time: mytime.toLocalDateString() into one statement?

javascript
node.js
express

Answer 1

You don't. Readability over brevity. Let the machine do the minifying.

You could write mytime.toLocaleDateString() as (new Date()).toLocaleDateString(), but I wouldn't recommend it.

My prefered styling:

exports.about = function(req, res){
  var mytime = new Date();
  res.render('about', {
    title: 'about page',
    time: mytime.toLocaleDateString()
  });
};

Answer 2

See Frits' answer: You can, but is there really any need? It's nice and readable the way you've done it.

But if you really, really want to, this is how:

exports.about = function(req, res){
 res.render('about', {title: 'about page', time: new Date().toLocaleDateString() });
};

It looks a bit odd, but the new Date() part takes precedence, so you don't even needs parens around it (e.g., you don't need time: (new Date()).toLocaleDateString()). You could have them if you want, but they're not necessary.

Answer 3

ONE LINE

exports.about = function(req, res){ res.render('about', {title: 'about page', time: new Date().toLocaleDateString() }); };

This quite dumb though. There's nothing wrong with your original code.

Answer 4

Making this piece of code any shorter won't make it any better. I'd personally make it a little larger, like so:

exports.about = function (req, res) {
    var mytime = new Date();
    res.render('about', {
        title: 'about page',
        time: mytime.toLocaleDateString()
    });
};

I added a space after function since that's what JSLint wants.
I added a space before the { because that makes it more readable.
I placed all the object properties on different lines so I don't have to scroll horizontally all day (plus now I can add comments at the end of each property, yay!).
Finally I replaced the spaces-indentation with tabs because that makes everything align perfectly while only requiring one key-press to remove or go over them (if your caret is at the beginning of the line 4 spaces would require 4 keypresses to move to your code, while a single tab requires just one keypress).

Answer 5

You could do,

exports.about = function(req, res){
  res.render('about', {title: 'about page', time: new Date().toLocaleDateString() });
};

But that's about it. I do agree with Frits van Campen.

Answer 6

My opinion is that it is better style to remove the mytime var because you are merely getting the current system time, and new Date() makes the intent perfectly clear.

exports.about = function (req, res) {
    res.render('about', {
        title: 'about page',
        time: new Date().toLocaleDateString()
    });
};