JavaScript Date Instance Methods (v2.0.2 2008-09-10)

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Demo
3. Download Source
4. More Examples
5. Method Reference
6. Parsable Formats
7. Format Codes
8. Customization
9. Unit Test

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Introduction

This script provides JavaScript Date instance methods for parsing, formatting, and calculating dates. The script is compact (6.1kb) because it levarages the existing functionality of the native Date.parse method and uses a concise and configurable algorithm for interpolating format codes.

Features include:

1. Parse various formats with ability to register custom format parsing.
2. Format dates using the well-known percent-letter formatting options with the ability to register custom formating.
3. Add and subtract years, months, days, hours, minutes or seconds.
4. Calculate differences between dates in the given unit.
5. Methods are available on all Date Objects.

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Demo

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Download Source

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More Examples

$D('2006-09-20').strftime('%m/%d/%Y'); // "09/20/2006"
$D('Sep 20 2006').add(3).strftime('%Y-%m-%d'); // "2006-09-23"
$D('09/20/2006').add(4, 'years').strftime('%Y-%m-%d'); // "2010-09-20"
$D('09/20/2006 20:15:00').add(4, 'hours').strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'); // "2006-09-21 00:15:00"
$D('2006.09.28').diff('20 Sep, 2006', 'days'); // 8

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Full Reference

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Parsable Formats

• Oct 29, 2007
• October 29, 2007
• 10/29/2007
• 29 Oct 2007
• 29 October 2007
• 10-29-2007
• 2007-10-29
• 29.10.2007
• date 02:30:59
• date 02:30
• date 2:30:59am
• date 2:30am
• date 2am
• 2:30:59am
• 2:30am
• 2am

Note: all formats are case insensitive.

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Format Codes

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Customization

This library allows you to customize month/day names, parsing patterns and format characters.

Month/day names

Simply set the static members of the Date object.

Date.MONTHNAMES = 'Enero Febrero Marzo Abril Mayo Junio Julio Agosto Septiembre Octubre Noviembre Diciembre'.split(' '),
Date.DAYNAMES   = 'Domingo Lunes Martes Mi�rcoles Jueves Viernes S�bado'.split(' '),

Parsing patterns

Add new pattern strings or functions to the array defined in Data.create.patterns. See source for more examples.

// World time => Parsable US-style time
Date.create.patterns.unshift([/(3[01]|[0-2]\d)\s*\.\s*(1[0-2]|0\d)\s*\.\s*([1-9]\d{3})/, '$2/$1/$3']);
// 5 months ago
Date.create.patterns.push(function (str) {
  var match = str.match(/(\d+)\s+(year|month|week|day|hour|minute|second)s?\s+ago/i);
  if (match) return new Date().add(-1 * match[1], match[2]);
});

Format characters

Add new characters and character patterns for use with strftime. See source for more examples.

//
// 2-part regex matcher for format codes
//
// first match must be the character before the code (to account for escaping)
// second match must be the format code character(s)
//
Date.prototype.strftime.formatCodes = {
  matcher: /()([a-z]{2,4})/,
  // year
  yyyy: 'FullYear',
  yy: 'ShortYear.2',
  // month
  mm: 'MonthNumber.2',
  // day
  dd: 'Date.2'
};
//
// shortcuts that will be translated into their longer version
//
// be sure that format shortcuts do not refer to themselves: this will cause an infinite loop
//
Date.prototype.strftime.formatShortcuts = {
  us: 'mm/dd/yyyy',
  de: 'mm.dd.yyyy',
  iso: 'yyyy-mm-dd'
};