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The Date object is a datatype built into the JavaScript language. Date objects are created with the new Date( ) as shown below.
Once a Date object is created, a number of methods allow you to operate on it. Most methods simply allow you to get and set the year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and millisecond fields of the object using either local time or UTC (universal, or GMT) time.
The ECMAScript standard requires the Date object to be able to represent any date and time, to millisecond precision, within 100 million days before or after 1/1/1970. This is a range of plus or minus 273,785 years, so JavaScript can represent the date and time till the year 275755.
Syntax
You can use any of the following syntaxes to create a Date object using the Date() constructor −
new Date( ) new Date(milliseconds) new Date(datestring) new Date(year,month,date[,hour,minute,second,millisecond ])
Note − Parameters in the brackets are always optional.
Parameters
- No Argument − With no arguments, the Date() constructor creates a Date object set to the current date and time.
- milliseconds − When one numeric argument is passed, it is taken as the internal numeric representation of the date in milliseconds, as returned by the getTime() method. For example, passing the argument 5000 creates a date that represents five seconds past midnight on 1/1/70.
- datestring − When one string argument is passed, it is a string representation of a date in the format accepted by the Date.parse() method.
- 7 agruments − To use the last form of the constructor shown above. Here is a description of each argument −
- year − Integer value representing the year. For compatibility (in order to avoid the Y2K problem), you should always specify the year in full; use 1998 rather than 98.
- month − Integer value representing the month, beginning with 0 for January to 11 for December.
- date − Integer value representing the day of the month.
- hour − Integer value representing the hour of the day (24-hour scale).
- minute − Integer value representing the minute segment of a time reading.
- second − Integer value representing the second segment of a time reading.
- millisecond − Integer value representing the millisecond segment of a time reading.
Return Value
It returns the date string containing day, month, date, year, hours, minutes, seconds, and timezone, as shown below.
Wed Aug 09 2023 09:24:03 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)
JavaScript Date Reference
In JavaScript, the Date object provides methods for creating, manipulating, and formatting dates and times. Here, we have listed all the methods present in Date class −
JavaScript Date Methods
Here is a list of the methods used with Date and their description.
Date Static Methods
These methods are invoked using the Date object −
| Sr.No. | Name & Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Date.parse()
Parses a string representation of a date and time and returns the internal millisecond representation of that date.
|
| 2 | Date.UTC()
Returns the millisecond representation of the specified UTC date and time.
|
Date Methods
These methods are invoked using the instance of the Date object −
| Sr.No. | Name & Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | getDate()
Returns the day of the month for the specified date according to local time.
|
| 2 | getDay()
Returns the day of the week for the specified date according to local time.
|
| 3 | getFullYear()
Returns the year of the specified date according to local time.
|
| 4 | getHours()
Returns the hour in the specified date according to local time.
|
| 5 | getMilliseconds()
Returns the milliseconds in the specified date according to local time.
|
| 6 | getMinutes()
Returns the minutes in the specified date according to local time.
|
| 7 | getMonth()
Returns the month in the specified date according to local time.
|
| 8 | getSeconds()
Returns the seconds in the specified date according to local time.
|
| 9 | getTime()
Returns the numeric value of the specified date as the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC.
|
| 10 | getTimezoneOffset()
Returns the time-zone offset in minutes for the current locale.
|
| 11 | getUTCDate()
Returns the day (date) of the month in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 12 | getUTCDay()
Returns the day of the week in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 13 | getUTCFullYear()
Returns the year in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 14 | getUTCHours()
Returns the hours in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 15 | getUTCMilliseconds()
Returns the milliseconds in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 16 | getUTCMinutes()
Returns the minutes in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 17 | getUTCMonth()
Returns the month in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 18 | getUTCSeconds()
Returns the seconds in the specified date according to universal time.
|
| 19 | setDate()
Sets the day of the month for a specified date according to local time.
|
| 20 | setFullYear()
Sets the full year for a specified date according to local time.
|
| 21 | setHours()
Sets the hours for a specified date according to local time.
|
| 22 | setMilliseconds()
Sets the milliseconds for a specified date according to local time.
|
| 23 | setMinutes()
Sets the minutes for a specified date according to local time.
|
| 24 | setMonth()
Sets the month for a specified date according to local time.
|
| 25 | setSeconds()
Sets the seconds for a specified date according to local time.
|
| 26 | setTime()
Sets the Date object to the time represented by a number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC.
|
| 27 | setUTCDate()
Sets the day of the month for a specified date according to universal time.
|
| 28 | setUTCFullYear()
Sets the full year for a specified date according to universal time.
|
| 29 | setUTCHours()
Sets the hour for a specified date according to universal time.
|
| 30 | setUTCMilliseconds()
Sets the milliseconds for a specified date according to universal time.
|
| 31 | setUTCMinutes()
Sets the minutes for a specified date according to universal time.
|
| 32 | setUTCMonth()
Sets the month for a specified date according to universal time.
|
| 33 | setUTCSeconds()
Sets the seconds for a specified date according to universal time.
|
| 34 | toDateString()
Returns the “date” portion of the Date as a human-readable string.
|
| 35 | toISOString()
Returns date string in the ISO format.
|
| 36 | toLocaleDateString()
Returns the “date” portion of the Date as a string, using the current locale”s conventions.
|
| 37 | toJSON()
Converts a date to a string.
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| 38 | toLocaleString()
Converts a date to a string, using the current locale”s conventions.
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| 39 | toLocaleTimeString()
Returns the “time” portion of the Date as a string, using the current locale”s conventions.
|
| 40 | toString()
Returns a string representing the specified Date object.
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| 41 | toTimeString()
Returns the “time” portion of the Date as a human-readable string.
|
| 42 | toUTCString()
Converts a date to a string, using the universal time convention.
|
| 43 | valueOf()
Returns the primitive value of a Date object.
|
Date Object Constructor
Following is the Date Object Constructor in JavaScript −
| Sr.No. | Name & Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Date()
Returns today”s date and time.
|
Example: Creating JavaScript Date Object
In the example below, we create a new instance of the date object. In the output, you can observe that it returns the current time.
<html>
<head>
<title> JavaScript - Date object </title>
</head>
<body>
<p id = "output"> </p>
<script>
const date = new Date();
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML =
"Today''s date is : " + date;
</script>
</body>
</html>
Output
If we execute the above program, it returns the current time.
Example: Setting up custom date
In the example below, We have passed the custom date string as a parameter of the Date() constructor to create a custom date.
The Date() constructor returns the standard date string, which you can see in the output.
<html>
<head>
<title> JavaScript - Date object </title>
</head>
<body>
<p id = "output"> </p>
<script>
const date = new Date("August 19, 2024 09:30:54");
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML =
"The custom date is : " + date;
</script>
</body>
</html>
Output
If we execute the above program, it returns the custom time as provided.
Example
In the example below, we have passed milliseconds as an argument of the Date() constructor. If you pass the positive milliseconds as an argument, the object returns the date according to the 1st January 1970 00:00:00 + milliseconds.
Otherwise, it returns the date according to the 1st January 1970 00:00:00 – milliseconds if negative milliseconds passed as an argument.
<html>
<head>
<title> JavaScript - Date object </title>
</head>
<body>
<p id = "output"> </p>
<script>
const output = document.getElementById("output");
let date = new Date(999999999999);
output.innerHTML += "The Date after 1st January, 1970 is - " + date + "<br>";
date = new Date(-999999999999);
output.innerHTML += "The Date before 1st January, 1970 is - " + date;
</script>
</body>
</html>
Output
It returns the date after 1st January, 1970 and before 1st January, 1970 as result.
Example: Constructing a date from 7 arguments
In the example below, we have passed the year, month, date, hour, minute, second, and millisecond as a Date() constructor argument. The Date() constructor returns the full date string, which you can see in the output.
<html>
<head>
<title> JavaScript - Date object </title>
</head>
<body>
<p id = "output"> </p>
<script>
const date = new Date(2001, 5, 14, 6, 43, 58, 342);
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML =
"The custom date is : " + date;
</script>
</body>
</html>
Output
If we execute the above program, it returns the custom time as provided.
However, you can use the different methods of the Date object to format the date string. Let’s look at the example below.
Example: Formatting a date string
In the example below, three different methods are used to format the date string.
The toDateString() method extracts the date only from the date string and removes the time part.
The toISOString() method converts the date string into the ISO format.
The toUTCString() method converts the date string into the UTC time format.
<html>
<head>
<title> JavaScript - Formatting the date </title>
</head>
<body>
<p id = "output"> </p>
<script>
const date = new Date(999999999999);
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML +=
"The Date after 1st January, 1970 is: " + date.toDateString() + "<br>"+
"The Date after 1st January, 1970 is: " + date.toISOString() + "<br>"+
"The Date after 1st January, 1970 is: " + date.toUTCString();
</script>
</body>
</html>
Output
It will return the ouptut of the above provided methods, respectively.
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