Introduction to JavaScript Date object

JavaScript’s built-in Date object enables you to create and store the date and time. It also provides you with methods to manipulate created date and time objects.

You can use the new Date() construct to create a new Date object showing the current date and time:

let nowDate = new Date(); // date and time in your local timezone
console.log(nowDate); // shows current date and time

The date and time created by new Date() will always follow the timezone used by the JavaScript engine. Usually, it follows your computer’s timezone.

JavaScript Date object works by internally calculating the amount of milliseconds that have passed since Epoch time (January 1, 1970 00:00:00 in the UTC timezone).

You can see this when you use the Date.now() method:

let nowInMs = Date.now();
console.log(nowInMs); // current milliseconds passed since January 1 UTC

Any JavaScript environment knows how to interpret these Date objects, so you can pass it around from Node.js to the browser and conversely from the browser to Node.js.

Aside from creating the current date and time with new Date(), there are three ways you can create a specific date and time in JavaScript:

• Using the date string
• Using milliseconds
• Using the 7 parameters of date and time object

First, using a date string as follows:

let newDate = new Date("January 17, 2021");
console.log(newDate); // Sun Jan 17 2021 00:00:00 in your timezone

let dateWithTime = new Date("January 17, 2021 09:15:30");
console.log(dateWithTime); // Sun Jan 17 2021 09:15:30 in your timezone

Second, using the milliseconds as follows:

let ms = 1613542151911; // Wed Feb 17 2021 06:09:11 UTC+0
let dateFromMs = new Date(ms);
console.log(dateFromMs); // time will be adjusted to your timezone

When using milliseconds, the time format will be in UTC+0, so your new Date object will be adjusted forward or backward according to your timezone.

Third, you can use the 7 parameters of the Date construct in the following order:

new Date(year, month, day, hour, minute, second, millisecond);

Keep in mind that Date counts the month from zero. That means you need to use 0 for January, 1 for February, and so on. For example:

let date = new Date(2021, 1, 10, 7, 30, 5, 2);
console.log(date); // Wed Feb 10 2021 07:30:05 in your timezone

When you pass only one argument, JavaScript will consider that to be milliseconds:

let date = new Date(2021);
console.log(date); // Thu Jan 01 1970 07:00:02

You need to at least pass two arguments for the year and month to create the proper Date object:

let date = new Date(2021, 01);
console.log(date); // Mon Feb 01 2021 00:00:00

You can omit the parameters from day to the millisecond and use only the year and month parameters.

Manipulating date and time

JavaScript Date object provides you with methods to get and set your date in a certain format.

JavaScript methods you can use to retrieve your date includes:

• getFullYear() returns the year in 4 digits format
• getMonth() returns the month from 0 to 11, with 0 representing January
• getDate() returns the date from 1 to 31
• getDay() returns the day of the week, from 0 to 6, with 0 representing Sunday
• getHours() returns the hour from 0 to 23
• getMinutes() returns the minute from 0 to 59
• getSeconds() returns the second from 0 to 59
• getMilliseconds() returns the second from 0 to 999
• getTime() returns the milliseconds since Epoch time, like Date.now()

JavaScript also has the corresponding set methods for Date object as follows:

• setFullYear() returns the year in 4 digits format
• setMonth() returns the month from 0 to 11, with 0 representing January
• setDate() returns the date from 1 to 31
• setDay() returns the day of the week, from 0 to 6, with 0 representing Sunday
• setHours() returns the hour from 0 to 23
• setMinutes() returns the minute from 0 to 59
• setSeconds() returns the second from 0 to 59
• setMilliseconds() returns the second from 0 to 999
• setTime() returns the milliseconds since Epoch time, like Date.now()

Date.parse() method

The Date.parse() method allows you to return the milliseconds from a date string, similar to the Date.now() method.

The standard format for the date string is YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ which broken down as follows:

• YYYY-MM-DD – is for the date format: year in 4 digits, while month and date in 2 digits
• The character T separates the date from time.
• HH:mm:ss.sss – is for the time format: hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds.
• The optional Z part denotes the time zone for the date. A single letter Z would mean UTC+0. You can use the +00:00 or -00:00 for the timezone

Here’s an example:

let dateA = Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00.000Z");
let dateB = Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+03:00");

console.log(dateA); // 1546300800000
console.log(dateB); // 1546290000000

When you pass an invalid date format, the method will return NaN:

let dateA = Date.parse("2021-25-23'");

console.log(dateA); // NaN

That will be all about JavaScript Date object.