Date

Summary

Enables basic storage and retrieval of dates and times.

Syntax

dateObj = new Date()

dateObj = new Date( dateVal )

dateObj = new Date( year , month , date [, hours [, minutes [, seconds [, ms ]]]])

dateObj: Required. The variable name to which the Date object is assigned.
dateVal: Required. If a numeric value, dateVal represents the number of milliseconds in Universal Coordinated Time between the specified date and midnight January 1, 1970. If a string, dateVal is parsed according to the rules in Formatting Date and Time Strings (Windows Scripting - JScript). The dateVal argument can also be a VT_DATE value as returned from some ActiveX objects.
year: Required. The full year, for example, 1976 (and not 76).
month: Required. The month as an integer between 0 and 11 (January to December).
date: Required. The date as an integer between 1 and 31.
hours: Optional. Must be supplied if minutes is supplied. An integer from 0 to 23 (midnight to 11pm) that specifies the hour.
minutes: Optional. Must be supplied if seconds is supplied. An integer from 0 to 59 that specifies the minutes.
seconds: Optional. Must be supplied if milliseconds is supplied. An integer from 0 to 59 that specifies the seconds.
ms: Optional. An integer from 0 to 999 that specifies the milliseconds.

Examples

The following example illustrates the use of the Date object.

var dateString = "Today's date is: ";

 var newDate = new Date();

 // Get the month, day, and year.
 dateString += (newDate.getMonth() + 1) + "/";
 dateString += newDate.getDate() + "/";
 dateString += newDate.getFullYear();

 document.write(dateString);

 // Output: Today's date is: <date>

Remarks

A Date object contains a number representing a particular instant in time to within a millisecond. If the value of an argument is greater than its range or is a negative number, other stored values are modified accordingly. For example, if you specify 150 seconds, JavaScript redefines that number as two minutes and 30 seconds.

If the number is NaN , the object does not represent a specific instant of time. If you pass no parameters to the Date object, it is initialized to the current time (UTC). A value must be given to the object before you can use it.

The range of dates that can be represented in a Date object is approximately 285,616 years on either side of January 1, 1970.

See Date and Time Calculations (Windows Scripting - JScript) for more information about how to use the Date object and related methods.

Properties

The following table lists the properties of the Date object.

Functions

The following table lists the functions of the Date object.

Methods

The following table lists the methods of the Date object.

Method	Summary
getDate	Gets the day-of-the-month, using local time.
getDay	Gets the day of the week, using local time.
getFullYear	Gets the year, using local time.
getHours	Gets the hours in a date, using local time.
getMilliseconds	Gets the milliseconds of a Date, using local time.
getMinutes	Gets the minutes of a Date object, using local time.
getMonth	Gets the month, using local time.
getSeconds	Gets the seconds of a Date object, using local time.
getTime	Gets the time value in milliseconds.
getTimezoneOffset	Gets the difference in minutes between the time on the local computer and Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCDate	Gets the day-of-the-month, using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCDay	Gets the day of the week using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCFullYear	Gets the year using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCHours	Gets the hours value in a Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCMilliseconds	Gets the milliseconds of a Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCMinutes	Gets the minutes of a Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCMonth	Gets the month of a Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getUTCSeconds	Gets the seconds of a Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
getYear	Gets the year of a Date object. Deprecated in favor of getFullYear method.
setDate	Sets the numeric day-of-the-month value of the Date object using local time.
setFullYear	Sets the year of the Date object using local time.
setHours	Sets the hour value in the Date object using local time.
setMilliseconds	Sets the milliseconds value in the Date object using local time.
setMinutes	Sets the minutes value in the Date object using local time.
setMonth	Sets the month value in the Date object using local time.
setSeconds	Sets the seconds value in the Date object using local time.
setTime	Sets the date and time value in the Date object.
setUTCDate	Sets the numeric day of the month in the Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
setUTCFullYear	Sets the year value in the Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
setUTCHours	Sets the hours value in the Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
setUTCMilliseconds	Sets the milliseconds value in the Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
setUTCMinutes	Sets the minutes value in the Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
setUTCMonth	Sets the month value in the Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
setUTCSeconds	Sets the seconds value in the Date object using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
setYear	Sets the year value in the Date object. Deprecated in favor of the setFullYear method.
toDateString	Returns the date component of a date as a human readable string.
toGMTString	Returns a date converted to a string formatted according to GMT conventions.
toISOString	Returns a date as a string value in simplified ISO 8601 Extended format.
toLocaleDateString	Returns a date as a string value appropriate to the host environment’s current locale.
toTimeString	Returns the time component of a date as a human readable string.
toUTCString	Returns a date converted to a string formatted according to UTC conventions.
valueOf	Returns the stored time value in milliseconds since midnight, January 1, 1970 UTC.
hasOwnProperty	Determines whether an object has a property with the specified name.
isPrototypeOf	Determines whether an object exists in another object’s prototype chain.

Properties

The following table lists properties of the Date Object.

Property	Description
constructor	Specifies the function that creates an object.
prototype	Returns a reference to the prototype for a class of objects.

Functions

The following table lists functions of the Date Object.

Functions	Description
Date.now	Returns the number of milliseconds between January 1, 1970, and the current date and time.
Date.parse	Parses a string containing a date, and returns the number of milliseconds between that date and midnight, January 1, 1970.
Date.UTC	Returns the number of milliseconds between midnight, January 1, 1970 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) (or GMT) and the supplied date.

Attributions

Microsoft Developer Network: Article