How do I pre-populate a jQuery Datepicker textbox with today's date?

Update: There are reports this no longer works in Chrome.

This is concise and does the job (obsolete):

$(".date-pick").datepicker('setDate', new Date());

This is less concise, utilizing chaining allows it to work in chrome (2019-06-04):

$(".date-pick").datepicker().datepicker('setDate', new Date());

var myDate = new Date();
var prettyDate =(myDate.getMonth()+1) + '/' + myDate.getDate() + '/' +
        myDate.getFullYear();
$("#date_pretty").val(prettyDate);

seemed to work, but there might be a better way out there..

The solution is:

$(document).ready(function(){
    $("#date_pretty").datepicker({ 
    });
    var myDate = new Date();
    var month = myDate.getMonth() + 1;
    var prettyDate = month + '/' + myDate.getDate() + '/' + myDate.getFullYear();
    $("#date_pretty").val(prettyDate);
});

Thanks grayghost!

$('input[name*="date"]').datepicker({
        dateFormat: 'dd-mm-yy',
        changeMonth: true,
        changeYear: true,
        beforeShow: function(input, instance) { 
            $(input).datepicker('setDate', new Date());
        }
    });

var prettyDate = $.datepicker.formatDate('dd-M-yy', new Date());
alert(prettyDate);

Assign the prettyDate to the necessary control.

Use This:

$(".datepicker").datepicker({ dateFormat: 'dd-M-yy' }).datepicker('setDate', new Date());

To Get Date in Format Eg: 10-Oct-2019 which will be more understandable for users.

$(function()
{
$('.date-pick').datePicker().val(new Date().asString()).trigger('change');
});

Source: http://www.kelvinluck.com/assets/jquery/datePicker/v2/demo/datePickerDefaultToday.html