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());

You must FIRST call datepicker() > then use 'setDate' to get the current date.

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

OR chain your setDate method call after your datepicker initialization, as noted in a comment on this answer

$('.date-pick').datepicker({ /* optional option parameters... */ })
               .datepicker("setDate", new Date());

It will NOT work with just

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

NOTE : Acceptable setDate parameters are described here

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