Date.prototype.setSeconds()

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The setSeconds() method of Date instances changes the seconds and/or milliseconds for this date according to local time.

Try it

const event = new Date("August 19, 1975 23:15:30");

event.setSeconds(42);

console.log(event.getSeconds());
// Expected output: 42

console.log(event);
// Expected output: "Sat Apr 19 1975 23:15:42 GMT+0100 (CET)"
// Note: your timezone may vary

Syntax

js
setSeconds(secondsValue)
setSeconds(secondsValue, msValue)

Parameters

secondsValue

An integer between 0 and 59 representing the seconds.

msValue Optional

An integer between 0 and 999 representing the milliseconds.

Return value

Changes the Date object in place, and returns its new timestamp. If a parameter is NaN (or other values that get coerced to NaN, such as undefined), the date is set to Invalid Date and NaN is returned.

Description

If you do not specify the msValue parameter, the value returned from the getMilliseconds() method is used.

If a parameter you specify is outside of the expected range, setSeconds() attempts to update the date information in the Date object accordingly. For example, if you use 100 for secondsValue, the minutes stored in the Date object will be incremented by 1, and 40 will be used for seconds.

Examples

Using setSeconds()

js
const theBigDay = new Date();
theBigDay.setSeconds(30);

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript® 2025 Language Specification
# sec-date.prototype.setseconds

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobileserver
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
Deno
Node.js
setSeconds

Legend

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Full support
Full support

See also