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I'm making a GET endpoint that handles this variable in Node.js using Express:

?message-timestamp=2012-08-19+20%3A38%3A23

I'm having trouble accessing it using req.query. Accessing req.query.message-timestamp throws an error ("ReferenceError: timestamp is not defined"). Clearly the dash isn't playing nice.

Any obvious way around that?

szxk
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    does `req.query['message-timestamp']` work? can't you dump `req.params`? why not use `+new Date()` which gives something like `1396159446837` ? – Gntem Mar 30 '14 at 06:06
  • Aha, didn't know about bracket syntax. Yes, using Date.now() now, but was asking just for future reference. Thanks! Edit: Also the callback in question comes from a texting service API, so the time that the message was sent isn't always the current time. – szxk Mar 30 '14 at 06:07
  • Does this answer your question? [How do I reference a javascript object property with a hyphen in it?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7122609/how-do-i-reference-a-javascript-object-property-with-a-hyphen-in-it) – Henke Jan 29 '21 at 10:44

1 Answers1

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In javascript, object values can be accessed by using either . or []
When the key contains a dash, you cannot use the . notation because the - will be interpreted as "minus". This is not related to express, it's just how javascript works.

So you should use:

req.query["message-timestamp"]
mihai
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