Setting timestamp in first empty cell of column - google-apps-script

Question

I have not been able to find this anywhere. I'm guessing I'm searching for the wrong keywords. So far I have been able to use:
function getFirst() {
var spr = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var column = spr.getRange('F2:F260');
var values = column.getValues(); // get all data in one call
var ct = 0;
while ( values[ct][0] != "" ) {
ct++;
}
return (ct);
}
But I can't quite figure out how to set the return value to (new Date()).
This:
function clockOut() {
SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getRange('F2').setValue(getFirst(new Date));
}
Sets the time based off of the ct which, because it's zero, looks like: | 12/31/1899 0:00:00 |. Also in the F2 spot not in the ct spot. I think I'm close yet feel like I'm going in the wrong direction. Thanks

Answer 1

You were not too far in the first part... after that it becomes a bit confuse... here is a working example, I changed it to allow for easy customization on choosing the column.
function clockOut() {
var sh = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var col = "F";// choose the column you want
sh.getRange(col+getFirstEmptyCell(col)).setValue(new Date());
}
function getFirstEmptyCell(col) {
var sh = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var values = sh.getRange(col+"1:"+col).getValues()
var ct = 0;
while ( values[ct][0] != "" ) {
ct++;
}
ct++;// because we want to get the row after the last non-empty row
Logger.log(ct);// just to check
return (ct);
}