Why wrap a new object in parentheses before accessing one of its members?

Question

I did read that this

var time = (new Date()).getTime();

is preferred to this

var time = new Date().getTime();

although the result in both examples is the same. What is the reason why I should wrap a new object in parentheses before accessing any of its members?

Answer 1

Because it's clearer to read.

You could also have written (new Date).getTime() , which is definitely different from new Date.getTime() (which has the meaning new (Date.getTime)() ). Of course, if you know the precendence rules the parentheses are meaningless to you , but the code is still more explicit and better to maintain.