Node/Express: Grab req.query value from URL and turn it into a UNIX timestamp

Question

I have the following URL:

https://electric-stoat.glitch.me/api/timestamp/:date_string?2015-12-25

In my Express app.get function I want to grab 2015-12-25 and return JSON that looks like this:

{unix: < The UNIX timestamp for 2015-12-15 in milliseconds >, utc: < The UTC timestamp for 2015-12-15 >} 

How can I grab 2015-12-15 from req.query and turn it into a UNIX timestamp and a UTC timestamp? Here is what I have so far, ignore the first part of the if statement. In the else I want req.query to be turned into UNIX/UTC timestamps.

app.get("/api/timestamp/:date_string?", function (req, res, date) {
  // If query params are empty use the current date
  if(Object.keys(req.query).length === 0) {
    date = Date.now();
    console.log("Date.now outputs : " + date);
    var dateUTC = new Date().toUTCString();

    res.json({ 
      unix: date,
      utc: dateUTC
    });
  }
  // If query params are provided use date provided by req.query
  else {
    res.json({
      unix: req.query,
      utc: req.query
    })
  }

Answer 1

req.params contains route parameters (in the path portion of the URL), and req.query contains the URL query parameters (after the ? in the URL).

You can also use req.param(name) to look up a parameter in both places (as well as req.body), but this method is now deprecated.