date() is a reference to the os.date function. It is put in the global table as the os module is not available. date ([format [, time]]) It returns a string or a table containing the user's machine's current date and time (or the time represented by time), formatted according to the given string format. If one wishes to supply your own format string, then it uses the same rules as strftime(). The special string * t tells the date() function to return a table. This is a mirror of the LUA function os.date(). date("%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S") to display the date in the default PC format -or-