Lets you work with dates and times.
Platform Support
| IE | Mozilla | Netscape | Opera | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.0+ | 1.0+ | 2.0+ | 7.0+ | 1.0+ |
Constructors
| Constructor | Action | IE | Mozilla | Netscape | Opera | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Date Constructor([Number milliseconds,] [String dateString,] [Object yr_num, mo_num, day_num,] [Object hr_num, min_num, sec_num, ms_num]) : Date
Creates a new instance of a Date object.
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Show Details | 3.0+ | 1.0+ | 2.0+ | 7.0+ | 1.0+ |
Properties
| Property | Action | IE | Mozilla | Netscape | Opera | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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constructor : Function
Specifies the function that creates an object's prototype. Note that the
value of this property is a reference to the function itself, not a string
containing the function's name.
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prototype : Date
Represents the prototype for this class. You can use the prototype to add
properties or methods to all instances of a class.
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Functions
| Method | Action | IE | Mozilla | Netscape | Opera | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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getDate() : Number
Returns the day of the month for the specified date according to local
time.
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getDay() : Number
Returns a number representing the day of the week for the specified date
(according to local time).
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getFullYear() : Number
Returns the year of the specified date according to local time.
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getHours() : Number
Returns the hour for the specified date according to local time.
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getMilliseconds() : Number
Returns the number of milliseconds in the specified date according to local
time.
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getMinutes() : Number
Returns the minutes in the specified date according to local time.
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getMonth() : Number
Returns the month (from 0-11) in the specified date according to local
time.
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getSeconds() : Number
Returns the seconds in the specified date according to local time.
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getTime() : Number
Returns the numeric value corresponding to the time for the specified date
according to universal time.
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getTimezoneOffset() : Number
Returns the time-zone offset in minutes for the current locale.
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getUTCDate() : Number
Returns the day (date) of the month in the specified date according to
universal time.
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getUTCDay() : Number
Returns the day of the week in the specified date according to universal
time.
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getUTCFullYear() : Number
Returns the year in the specified date according to universal time.
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getUTCHours() : Number
Returns the hours in the specified date according to universal time.
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getUTCMilliseconds() : Number
Returns the milliseconds in the specified date according to universal time.
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getUTCMinutes() : Number
Returns the minutes in the specified date according to universal time.
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getUTCMonth() : Number
Returns the month of the specified date according to universal time.
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getUTCSeconds() : Number
Returns the seconds in the specified date according to universal time.
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getYear() : Number
Returns the year in the specified date according to local time.
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now() : Number
Returns the number of milliseconds passed since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.
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Show Details | no | 1.0+ | no | no | no |
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static parse(String dateString) : Number
Parses a string representation of a date, and returns the number of milliseconds
since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00, local time.
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setDate(Number dayValue) : Number
Sets the day of the month for a specified date according to local time.
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setFullYear(Number yearValue, [Number monthValue,] [Number dayValue]) : Number
Sets the full year for a specified date according to local time.
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setHours(Number hoursValue, [Number minutesValue,] [Number secondsValue,] [Number msValue]) : Number
Sets the hours for a specified date according to local time.
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setMilliseconds(Number millisecondsValue) : Number
Sets the milliseconds for a specified date according to local time.
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setMinutes(Number minutesValue, [Number secondsValue,] [Number msValue]) : Number
Sets the minutes for a specified date according to local time.
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setMonth(Number monthValue, [Number dayValue]) : Number
Set the month for a specified date according to local time.
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setSeconds(Number secondsValue, [Number msValue]) : Number
Sets the seconds for a specified date according to local time.
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setTime(Number timeValue) : Number
Sets the value of a Date object according to local time.
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setUTCDate(Number dayValue) : Number
Sets the day of the month for a specified date according to universal time.
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setUTCFullYear(Number yearValue, [Number monthValue,] [Number dayValue]) : Number
Sets the full year for a specified date according to universal time.
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setUTCHours(Number hoursValue, [Number minutesValue,] [Number secondsValue,] [Number msValue]) : Number
Sets the hour for a specified date according to universal time.
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setUTCMilliseconds(Number millisecondsValue) : Number
Sets the milliseconds for a specified date according to universal time.
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setUTCMinutes(Number minutesValue, [Number secondsValue,] [Number msValue]) : Number
Sets the minutes for a specified date according to universal time.
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setUTCMonth(Number monthValue, [Number dayValue]) : Number
Sets the month for a specified date according to universal time.
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setUTCSeconds(Number secondsValue, [Number msValue]) : Number
Sets the seconds for a specified date according to universal time.
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setYear(Number yearValue) : Number
Sets the year for a specified date according to local time.
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toDateString() : String
Returns a string version of the Date object expressed in local time.
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toGMTString() : String
Converts a date to a string, using Internet GMT conventions.
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toLocaleDateString() : String
Converts a date to a string, returning the "date" portion using
the current locale's conventions.
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toLocaleString() : String
Converts a date to a string, using the current locale's conventions.
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toLocaleTimeString() : String
Converts a date to a string, returning the "date" portion using
the current locale's conventions.
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toSource() : String
Returns a string representing the source code of a Date object.
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toString() : String
Returns a string representing the specified Date object.
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toTimeString() : String
Returns a string representation of the time portion of a Date object, expressed
in local time.
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toUTCString() : String
Converts a date to a string, using the universal time convention.
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static UTC(Object year, Number month, [Number date,] [Number hrs,] [Number min,] [Number sec,] [Number ms]) : Number
Accepts the same parameters as the longest form of the constructor, and
returns the number of milliseconds in a Date object since January 1, 1970,
00:00:00, universal time.
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valueOf() : Number
Returns the primitive value of a Date object.
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Several ways to assign dates
The following examples show several ways to assign dates:
today = new Date();
birthday = new Date("December 17, 1995 03:24:00");
birthday = new Date(95,11,17);
birthday = new Date(95,11,17,3,24,0);
Remarks
If you supply no arguments, the constructor creates a Date object for today's date and time according to local time. If you supply
some arguments but not others, the missing arguments are set to 0. If you
supply any arguments, you must supply at least the year, month, and day.
You can omit the hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds.
The date is measured in milliseconds since midnight 01 January, 1970 UTC. A day holds 86,400,000 milliseconds. The Date object range is -100,000,000 days to 100,000,000 days relative to 01 January, 1970 UTC.
The Date object provides uniform behavior across platforms.
The Date object supports a number of UTC (universal) methods, as well as local
time methods. UTC, also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), refers to the
time as set by the World Time Standard. The local time is the time known
to the computer where JavaScript is executed.
For compatibility with millennium calculations (in other words, to take
into account the year 2000), you should always specify the year in full;
for example, use 1998, not 98. To assist you in specifying the complete
year, JavaScript includes the methods getFullYear, setFullYear, getUTCFullYear, and setUTCFullYear.
The following example returns the time elapsed between timeA and timeB in milliseconds.
timeA = new Date();
// Statements here to take some action.
timeB = new Date();
timeDifference = timeB - timeA;
References
Date.parse|Date.UTC
Availability
JavaScript 1.0|JScript 1.0|ECMAScript v1