JavaScript Date Reference Manual

Date object

The Date object is used to handle dates and times.

The Date object is created using new Date().

There are four ways to instantiate a date:

var d = new Date();
var d = new Date(milliseconds);
var d = new Date(dateString);
var d = new Date(year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);

Try it yourself

For tutorials on dates and times, please read our JavaScript Date Tutorial

Methods and properties of the Date object

Method Description
new Date() Return the day of the month (from 1 to 31).
constructor Return the function that creates the prototype of the Date object.
getDate() Return the day of the month (from 1 to 31).
getDay() Return the day of the week (0-6).
getFullYear() Return the year.
getHours() Return the hour (from 0-23).
getMilliseconds() Return the number of milliseconds (0-999).
getMinutes() Return the number of minutes (from 0-59).
getMonth() Return the month (from 0-11).
getSeconds() Return the number of seconds (from 0-59).
getTime() Return the number of milliseconds since midnight on January 1, 1970, for the specified date.
getTimezoneOffset() Return the time difference between UTC time and local time, in minutes.
getUTCDate() Return the day of the month (from 1 to 31) based on UTC.
getUTCDay() Return the day of the week (0-6) based on UTC.
getUTCFullYear() Return the year based on UTC.
getUTCHours() Return the hour (0-23) based on UTC.
getUTCMilliseconds() Return the number of milliseconds (0-999) based on UTC.
getUTCMinutes() Return the number of minutes (0-59) based on UTC.
getUTCMonth() Return the month (0-11) based on UTC.
getUTCSeconds() Return the number of seconds (0-59) based on UTC.
getYear() Deprecated.Please use The getFullYear() method
now() Return the number of milliseconds since midnight on January 1, 1970.
parse() Parse a date string and return the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970.
prototype Allows you to add properties and methods to the object.
setDate() Set the day of the month in the Date object.
setFullYear() Set the year of the date object
setHours() Set the hours of the date object.
setMilliseconds() Set the milliseconds of the date object.
setMinutes() Set the minutes of the date object.
setMonth() Set the month of the date object.
setSeconds() Set the seconds of the date object.
setTime() Set the date to a specified number of milliseconds after/before January 1, 1970.
setUTCDate() Set the day of the month in the Date object based on UTC.
setUTCFullYear() Set the year of the date object based on UTC.
setUTCHours() Set the hours of the date object based on UTC.
setUTCMilliseconds() Set the milliseconds of the date object based on UTC.
setUTCMinutes() Set the minutes of the date object based on UTC.
setUTCMonth() Set the month of the date object based on UTC.
setUTCSeconds() Set the seconds of the date object based on UTC.
setYear() Deprecated.Please use The setFullYear() method
toDateString() Convert the date part of the Date object to a readable string.
toGMTString() Deprecated.Please use The toUTCString() method
toISOString() Return the date as a string using the ISO standard.
toJSON() Return the date in string format, formatted as a JSON date.
toLocaleDateString() Return the date part of the Date object as a string using the locale-specific conventions.
toLocaleTimeString() Return the time part of the Date object as a string using the locale-specific conventions.
toLocaleString() Convert a Date object to a string using the locale-specific conventions.
toString() Convert a Date object to a string.
toTimeString() Converts the time part of the Date object to a string.
toUTCString() Converts the Date object to a string according to world time.
UTC() Returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, at midnight, according to UTC time.
valueOf() Return the original value of the Date object.