JavaScript Date Formats
JavaScript Date Input
There are generally 4 types of JavaScript date formats:
- ISO Dates
- Long Dates
- Short Dates
- Full Format
JavaScript Date Output
Independent of input format, JavaScript will (by default) output dates in full text string format:
Wed Mar 25 2015 01:00:00 GMT+0100 (W. Europe Standard Time)
JavaScript ISO Dates
ISO 8601 is the international standard for the representation of dates and times.
The ISO 8601 syntax (YYYY-MM-DD) is also the preferred JavaScript date format:
It can be written without specifying the day (YYYY-MM):
It can be written without month and day (YYYY):
It can be written with added hours, minutes, and seconds (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS):
Example (Complete date plus hours, minutes, and seconds)
var d = new Date("2015-03-25T12:00:00");
Try it Yourself »
The T in the date string, between the date and time, indicates UTC time.
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UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) is the same as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). |
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JavaScript Long Dates.
Long dates are most often written with a "MMM DD YYYY" syntax like this:
Month and day can be in any order:
And, month can be written in full (January), or abbreviated (Jan):
Commas are ignored. Names are case insensitive:
JavaScript Short Dates.
Short dates are most often written with an "MM/DD/YYYY" syntax like this:
JavaScript will also accept "YYYY/MM/DD":
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Month is written before day in all short date and ISO date formats. |
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Full Date Format
JavaScript will accept date strings in "full JavaScript format":
Example
var d = new Date("Wed Mar 25 2015 09:56:24 GMT+0100
(W. Europe Standard Time)");
Try it Yourself »
JavaScript will ignore errors both in the day name and in the time parentheses:
Time Zones
JavaScript accepts these time zones:
| Time Zone | Description |
|---|---|
| UTC | Coordinated Universal Time |
| GMT | Greenwich Mean Time |
| EDT | (US) Eastern Daylight Time |
| CDT | (US) Central Daylight Time |
| MDT | (US) Mountain Daylight Time |
| PDT | (US) Pacific Daylight Time |
| EST | (US) Eastern Standard Time |
| CST | (US) Central Standard Time |
| MST | (US) Mountain Standard Time |
| PST | (US) Pacific Standard Time |
When setting a date, without specifying the time zone, JavaScript will use the browser's time zone.
When getting a date, without specifying the time zone, the result is converted to the browser's time zone.
In other words: If a date/time is created in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), the date/time will be converted to CDT (Central US Daylight Time) if a user browses from central US.
