date-and-time

What is date-and-time?

The date-and-time npm package is a lightweight library for date and time manipulation in JavaScript. It provides a variety of functions for parsing, formatting, adding, subtracting, and comparing dates and times.

What are date-and-time's main functionalities?

Formatting Dates

This feature allows you to format dates into various string representations. The format method takes a date object and a format string as arguments.

const date = new Date(2023, 9, 10);
const dateAndTime = require('date-and-time');
const formattedDate = dateAndTime.format(date, 'YYYY/MM/DD HH:mm:ss');
console.log(formattedDate); // Output: 2023/10/10 00:00:00

Parsing Dates

This feature allows you to parse date strings into JavaScript Date objects. The parse method takes a date string and a format string as arguments.

const dateAndTime = require('date-and-time');
const dateString = '2023/10/10 00:00:00';
const parsedDate = dateAndTime.parse(dateString, 'YYYY/MM/DD HH:mm:ss');
console.log(parsedDate); // Output: Tue Oct 10 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Adding and Subtracting Time

This feature allows you to add or subtract time units (days, months, years, etc.) from a date. The addDays and addMonths methods are used in this example.

const dateAndTime = require('date-and-time');
let date = new Date(2023, 9, 10);
date = dateAndTime.addDays(date, 5);
console.log(date); // Output: Sun Oct 15 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
date = dateAndTime.addMonths(date, -1);
console.log(date); // Output: Fri Sep 15 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Comparing Dates

This feature allows you to compare dates. The isSameDay method checks if two dates fall on the same day.

const dateAndTime = require('date-and-time');
const date1 = new Date(2023, 9, 10);
const date2 = new Date(2023, 9, 15);
const isSameDay = dateAndTime.isSameDay(date1, date2);
console.log(isSameDay); // Output: false

Other packages similar to date-and-time

moment

Moment.js is a widely-used library for date and time manipulation. It offers extensive functionality for parsing, validating, manipulating, and formatting dates. Compared to date-and-time, Moment.js is more feature-rich but also larger in size.

date-fns

date-fns is a modern JavaScript date utility library that provides a comprehensive set of functions for date manipulation. It is modular, allowing you to import only the functions you need, making it more lightweight compared to Moment.js. date-fns is similar to date-and-time in terms of functionality but offers a more functional programming approach.

luxon

Luxon is a modern library for working with dates and times in JavaScript. It is built by one of the Moment.js developers and offers a more modern API with better support for internationalization. Luxon is more feature-rich than date-and-time and is designed to be a more modern alternative to Moment.js.

README

date-and-time

This JS library is just a collection of functions for manipulating date and time. It's small, simple, and easy to learn.

Why

Nowadays, JS modules have become larger, more complex, and dependent on many other modules. It is important to strive for simplicity and smallness, especially for modules that are at the bottom of the dependency chain, such as those that handle date and time.

Features

• Minimalist. Approximately 2k. (minified and gzipped)
• Extensible. Plugin system support.
• Multi language support.
• Universal / Isomorphic. Works anywhere.
• TypeScript support.
• Older browser support. Even works on IE6. :)

Install

npm i date-and-time

Recent Changes

• 3.3.0

  • Refactored format(), isValid(), and preparse(), further improved performance.

• 3.2.0

  • Refactored compile(), format(), and preparse(), slightly improved performance.

• 3.1.1

  • Fixed an issue where format() could output incorrect UTC times in locales with daylight savings time.
  • Refactored formatTZ() of timezone plugin.

Usage

• ES Modules:

import date from 'date-and-time';

• CommonJS:

const date = require('date-and-time');

• ES Modules for the browser:

<script type="module">
import date from '/path/to/date-and-time.es.min.js';
</script>

• Older browser:

<script src="/path/to/date-and-time.min.js">
// You will be able to access the global variable `date`.
</script>

Note

• If you want to use ES Modules in Node.js without the transpiler, you need to add "type": "module" in your package.json or change your file extension from .js to .mjs.

API

• format

  • Formatting date and time objects (Date -> String)

• parse

  • Parsing date and time strings (String -> Date)

• compile

  • Compiling format strings

• preparse

  • Pre-parsing date and time strings

• isValid

  • Date and time string validation

• transform

  • Format transformation of date and time strings (String -> String)

• addYears

  • Adding years

• addMonths

  • Adding months

• addDays

  • Adding days

• addHours

  • Adding hours

• addMinutes

  • Adding minutes

• addSeconds

  • Adding seconds

• addMilliseconds

  • Adding milliseconds

• subtract

  • Subtracting two dates (date1 - date2)

• isLeapYear

  • Whether a year is a leap year

• isSameDay

  • Comparison of two dates

• locale

  • Changing locales

• extend

  • Functional extension

• plugin

  • Importing plugins

format(dateObj, arg[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {string|Array.<string>} arg - A format string or its compiled object
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Output as UTC
• @returns {string} A formatted string

const now = new Date();
date.format(now, 'YYYY/MM/DD HH:mm:ss');    // => '2015/01/02 23:14:05'
date.format(now, 'ddd, MMM DD YYYY');       // => 'Fri, Jan 02 2015'
date.format(now, 'hh:mm A [GMT]Z');         // => '11:14 PM GMT-0800'
date.format(now, 'hh:mm A [GMT]Z', true);   // => '07:14 AM GMT+0000'

const pattern = date.compile('ddd, MMM DD YYYY');
date.format(now, pattern);                  // => 'Fri, Jan 02 2015'

Available tokens and their meanings are as follows:

token	meaning	examples of output
YYYY	four-digit year	0999, 2015
YY	two-digit year	99, 01, 15
Y	four-digit year without zero-padding	2, 44, 888, 2015
MMMM	month name (long)	January, December
MMM	month name (short)	Jan, Dec
MM	month with zero-padding	01, 12
M	month	1, 12
DD	date with zero-padding	02, 31
D	date	2, 31
dddd	day of week (long)	Friday, Sunday
ddd	day of week (short)	Fri, Sun
dd	day of week (very short)	Fr, Su
HH	24-hour with zero-padding	23, 08
H	24-hour	23, 8
hh	12-hour with zero-padding	11, 08
h	12-hour	11, 8
A	meridiem (uppercase)	AM, PM
mm	minute with zero-padding	14, 07
m	minute	14, 7
ss	second with zero-padding	05, 10
s	second	5, 10
SSS	millisecond (high accuracy)	753, 022
SS	millisecond (middle accuracy)	75, 02
S	millisecond (low accuracy)	7, 0
Z	time zone offset value	+0100, -0800
ZZ	time zone offset value with colon	+01:00, -08:00

You can also use the following tokens by importing plugins. See PLUGINS.md for details.

token	meaning	examples of output
DDD	ordinal notation of date	1st, 2nd, 3rd
AA	meridiem (uppercase with ellipsis)	A.M., P.M.
a	meridiem (lowercase)	am, pm
aa	meridiem (lowercase with ellipsis)	a.m., p.m.

Note 1. Comments

Parts of the given format string enclosed in square brackets are considered comments and are output as is, regardless of whether they are tokens or not.

date.format(new Date(), 'DD-[MM]-YYYY');    // => '02-MM-2015'
date.format(new Date(), '[DD-[MM]-YYYY]');  // => 'DD-[MM]-YYYY'

Note 2. Output as UTC

This function outputs the date and time in the local time zone of the execution environment by default. If you want to output in UTC, set the UTC option (the third argument) to true. To output in any other time zone, you will need a plugin.

date.format(new Date(), 'hh:mm A [GMT]Z');          // => '11:14 PM GMT-0800'
date.format(new Date(), 'hh:mm A [GMT]Z', true);    // => '07:14 AM GMT+0000'

Note 3. More Tokens

You can also define your own tokens. See EXTEND.md for details.

parse(dateString, arg[, utc])

• @param {string} dateString - A date and time string
• @param {string|Array.<string>} arg - A format string or its compiled object
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Input as UTC
• @returns {Date} A Date object

date.parse('2015/01/02 23:14:05', 'YYYY/MM/DD HH:mm:ss');   // => Jan 2 2015 23:14:05 GMT-0800
date.parse('02-01-2015', 'DD-MM-YYYY');                     // => Jan 2 2015 00:00:00 GMT-0800
date.parse('11:14:05 PM', 'hh:mm:ss A');                    // => Jan 1 1970 23:14:05 GMT-0800
date.parse('11:14:05 PM', 'hh:mm:ss A', true);              // => Jan 1 1970 23:14:05 GMT+0000 (Jan 1 1970 15:14:05 GMT-0800)
date.parse('23:14:05 GMT+0900', 'HH:mm:ss [GMT]Z');         // => Jan 1 1970 23:14:05 GMT+0900 (Jan 1 1970 06:14:05 GMT-0800)
date.parse('Jam 1 2017', 'MMM D YYYY');                     // => Invalid Date
date.parse('Feb 29 2017', 'MMM D YYYY');                    // => Invalid Date

Available tokens and their meanings are as follows:

token	meaning	examples of acceptable form
YYYY	four-digit year	0999, 2015
Y	four-digit year without zero-padding	2, 44, 88, 2015
MMMM	month name (long)	January, December
MMM	month name (short)	Jan, Dec
MM	month with zero-padding	01, 12
M	month	1, 12
DD	date with zero-padding	02, 31
D	date	2, 31
HH	24-hour with zero-padding	23, 08
H	24-hour	23, 8
hh	12-hour with zero-padding	11, 08
h	12-hour	11, 8
A	meridiem (uppercase)	AM, PM
mm	minute with zero-padding	14, 07
m	minute	14, 7
ss	second with zero-padding	05, 10
s	second	5, 10
SSS	millisecond (high accuracy)	753, 022
SS	millisecond (middle accuracy)	75, 02
S	millisecond (low accuracy)	7, 0
Z	time zone offset value	+0100, -0800
ZZ	time zone offset value with colon	+01:00, -08:00

You can also use the following tokens by importing plugins. See PLUGINS.md for details.

token	meaning	examples of acceptable form
YY	two-digit year	90, 00, 08, 19
AA	meridiem (uppercase with ellipsis)	A.M., P.M.
a	meridiem (lowercase)	am, pm
aa	meridiem (lowercase with ellipsis)	a.m., p.m.
dddd	day of week (long)	Friday, Sunday
ddd	day of week (short)	Fri, Sun
dd	day of week (very short)	Fr, Su
SSSSSS	microsecond (high accuracy)	123456, 000001
SSSSS	microsecond (middle accuracy)	12345, 00001
SSSS	microsecond (low accuracy)	1234, 0001

Note 1. Invalid Date

If this function fails to parse, it will return Invalid Date. Notice that the Invalid Date is a Date object, not NaN or null. You can tell whether the Date object is invalid as follows:

const today = date.parse('Jam 1 2017', 'MMM D YYYY');

if (isNaN(today.getTime())) {
    // Failure
}

Note 2. Input as UTC

This function uses the local time zone offset value of the execution environment by default if the given string does not contain a time zone offset value. To make it use UTC instead, set the UTC option (the third argument) to true. If you want it to use any other time zone, you will need a plugin.

date.parse('11:14:05 PM', 'hh:mm:ss A');          // => Jan 1 1970 23:14:05 GMT-0800
date.parse('11:14:05 PM', 'hh:mm:ss A', true);    // => Jan 1 1970 23:14:05 GMT+0000 (Jan 1 1970 15:14:05 GMT-0800)

Note 3. Default Date Time

Default date is January 1, 1970, time is 00:00:00.000. Values not passed will be complemented with them:

date.parse('11:14:05 PM', 'hh:mm:ss A');    // => Jan 1 1970 23:14:05 GMT-0800
date.parse('Feb 2000', 'MMM YYYY');         // => Feb 1 2000 00:00:00 GMT-0800

Note 4. Max Date / Min Date

Parsable maximum date is December 31, 9999, minimum date is January 1, 0001.

date.parse('Dec 31 9999', 'MMM D YYYY');    // => Dec 31 9999 00:00:00 GMT-0800
date.parse('Dec 31 10000', 'MMM D YYYY');   // => Invalid Date

date.parse('Jan 1 0001', 'MMM D YYYY');     // => Jan 1 0001 00:00:00 GMT-0800
date.parse('Jan 1 0000', 'MMM D YYYY');     // => Invalid Date

Note 5. 12-hour notation and Meridiem

If use hh or h (12-hour) token, use together A (meridiem) token to get the right value.

date.parse('11:14:05', 'hh:mm:ss');         // => Jan 1 1970 11:14:05 GMT-0800
date.parse('11:14:05 PM', 'hh:mm:ss A');    // => Jan 1 1970 23:14:05 GMT-0800

Note 6. Token invalidation

Any part of the given format string that you do not want to be recognized as a token should be enclosed in square brackets. They are considered comments and will not be parsed.

date.parse('12 hours 34 minutes', 'HH hours mm minutes');       // => Invalid Date
date.parse('12 hours 34 minutes', 'HH [hours] mm [minutes]');   // => Jan 1 1970 12:34:00 GMT-0800

Note 7. Wildcard

Whitespace acts as a wildcard token. This token will not parse the corresponding parts of the date and time strings. This behavior is similar to enclosing part of a format string in square brackets (Token invalidation), but with the flexibility that the contents do not have to match, as long as the number of characters in the corresponding parts match.

// This will be an error.
date.parse('2015/01/02 11:14:05', 'YYYY/MM/DD');            // => Invalid Date
// Adjust the length of the format string by appending white spaces of the same length as a part to ignore to the end of it.
date.parse('2015/01/02 11:14:05', 'YYYY/MM/DD         ');   // => Jan 2 2015 00:00:00 GMT-0800

Note 8. Ellipsis

... token ignores subsequent corresponding date and time strings. Use this token only at the end of a format string. The above example can be also written like this:

date.parse('2015/01/02 11:14:05', 'YYYY/MM/DD...');   // => Jan 2 2015 00:00:00 GMT-0800

compile(formatString)

• @param {string} formatString - A format string
• @returns {Array.<string>} A compiled object

If you are going to execute the format(), the parse() or the isValid() so many times with one string format, recommended to precompile and reuse it for performance.

  const pattern = date.compile('MMM D YYYY h:m:s A');

  date.parse('Mar 22 2019 2:54:21 PM', pattern);
  date.parse('Jul 27 2019 4:15:24 AM', pattern);
  date.parse('Dec 25 2019 3:51:11 AM', pattern);

  date.format(new Date(), pattern); // => Mar 16 2020 6:24:56 PM

preparse(dateString, arg)

• @param {string} dateString - A date and time string
• @param {string|Array.<string>} arg - A format string or its compiled object
• @returns {Object} A pre-parsed result object

This function takes exactly the same parameters with the parse(), but returns a date structure as follows unlike that:

date.preparse('Fri Jan 2015 02 23:14:05 GMT-0800', '    MMM YYYY DD HH:mm:ss [GMT]Z');

{
    Y: 2015,        // Year
    M: 1,           // Month
    D: 2,           // Day
    H: 23,          // 24-hour
    A: 0,           // Meridiem
    h: 0,           // 12-hour
    m: 14,          // Minute
    s: 5,           // Second
    S: 0,           // Millisecond
    Z: 480,         // Timsezone offset
    _index: 33,     // Pointer offset
    _length: 33,    // Length of the date string
    _match: 7       // Token matching count
}

This date structure provides a parsing result. You will be able to tell from it how the date string was parsed(, or why the parsing was failed).

isValid(arg1[, arg2])

• @param {Object|string} arg1 - A pre-parsed result object or a date and time string
• @param {string|Array.<string>} [arg2] - A format string or its compiled object
• @returns {boolean} Whether the date and time string is a valid date and time

This function takes either exactly the same parameters with the parse() or a date structure which the preparse() returns, evaluates the validity of them.

date.isValid('2015/01/02 23:14:05', 'YYYY/MM/DD HH:mm:ss'); // => true
date.isValid('29-02-2015', 'DD-MM-YYYY');                   // => false

const result = date.preparse('2015/01/02 23:14:05', 'YYYY/MM/DD HH:mm:ss');
date.isValid(result);   // => true

transform(dateString, arg1, arg2[, utc])

• @param {string} dateString - A date and time string
• @param {string|Array.<string>} arg1 - A format string or its compiled object before transformation
• @param {string|Array.<string>} arg2 - A format string or its compiled object after transformation
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Output as UTC
• @returns {string} A formatted string

This function transforms the format of a date string. The 2nd parameter, arg1, is the format string of it. Available token list is equal to the parse()'s. The 3rd parameter, arg2, is the transformed format string. Available token list is equal to the format()'s.

// 3/8/2020 => 8/3/2020
date.transform('3/8/2020', 'D/M/YYYY', 'M/D/YYYY');

// 13:05 => 01:05 PM
date.transform('13:05', 'HH:mm', 'hh:mm A');

addYears(dateObj, years[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {number} years - Number of years to add
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Calculates as UTC Added in: v3.0.0
• @returns {Date} The Date object after adding the value

Adds years to the date object.

const now = new Date();
const next_year = date.addYears(now, 1);

Exceptional behavior of the calculation for the last day of the month:

const now = new Date(Date.UTC(2020, 1, 29));                // => Feb 29 2020
const next_year = date.addYears(now, 1, true);              // => Feb 28 2021
const next_next_year = date.addYears(next_year, 1, true);   // => Feb 28 2022

addMonths(dateObj, months[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {number} months - Number of months to add
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Calculates as UTC Added in: v3.0.0
• @returns {Date} The Date object after adding the value

Adds months to the date object.

const now = new Date();
const next_month = date.addMonths(now, 1);

Exceptional behavior of the calculation for the last day of the month:

const now = new Date(Date.UTC(2023, 0, 31));                    // => Jan 31 2023
const next_month = date.addMonths(now, 1, true);                // => Feb 28 2023
const next_next_month = date.addMonths(next_month, 1, true);    // => Mar 28 2023

addDays(dateObj, days[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {number} days - Number of days to add
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Calculates as UTC Added in: v3.0.0
• @returns {Date} The Date object after adding the value

const now = new Date();
const yesterday = date.addDays(now, -1);

addHours(dateObj, hours[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {number} hours - Number of hours to add
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Calculates as UTC Added in: v3.0.0
• @returns {Date} The Date object after adding the value

const now = new Date();
const an_hour_ago = date.addHours(now, -1);

addMinutes(dateObj, minutes[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {number} minutes - Number of minutes to add
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Calculates as UTC Added in: v3.0.0
• @returns {Date} The Date object after adding the value

const now = new Date();
const two_minutes_later = date.addMinutes(now, 2);

addSeconds(dateObj, seconds[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {number} seconds - Number of seconds to add
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Calculates as UTC Added in: v3.0.0
• @returns {Date} The Date object after adding the value

const now = new Date();
const three_seconds_ago = date.addSeconds(now, -3);

addMilliseconds(dateObj, milliseconds[, utc])

• @param {Date} dateObj - A Date object
• @param {number} milliseconds - Number of milliseconds to add
• @param {boolean} [utc] - Calculates as UTC Added in: v3.0.0
• @returns {Date} The Date object after adding the value

const now = new Date();
const a_millisecond_later = date.addMilliseconds(now, 1);

subtract(date1, date2)

• @param {Date} date1 - A Date object
• @param {Date} date2 - A Date object
• @returns {Object} The result object of subtracting date2 from date1

const today = new Date(2015, 0, 2);
const yesterday = new Date(2015, 0, 1);

date.subtract(today, yesterday).toDays();           // => 1 = today - yesterday
date.subtract(today, yesterday).toHours();          // => 24
date.subtract(today, yesterday).toMinutes();        // => 1440
date.subtract(today, yesterday).toSeconds();        // => 86400
date.subtract(today, yesterday).toMilliseconds();   // => 86400000

isLeapYear(y)

• @param {number} y - A year to check
• @returns {boolean} Whether the year is a leap year

date.isLeapYear(2015);  // => false
date.isLeapYear(2012);  // => true

isSameDay(date1, date2)

• @param {Date} date1 - A Date object
• @param {Date} date2 - A Date object
• @returns {boolean} Whether the two dates are the same day (time is ignored)

const date1 = new Date(2017, 0, 2, 0);          // Jan 2 2017 00:00:00
const date2 = new Date(2017, 0, 2, 23, 59);     // Jan 2 2017 23:59:00
const date3 = new Date(2017, 0, 1, 23, 59);     // Jan 1 2017 23:59:00
date.isSameDay(date1, date2);   // => true
date.isSameDay(date1, date3);   // => false

locale([locale])

• @param {Function|string} [locale] - A locale installer or language code
• @returns {string} The current language code

It returns the current language code if called without any parameters.

date.locale();  // => "en"

To switch to any other language, call it with a locale installer or a language code.

import es from 'date-and-time/locale/es';

date.locale(es);  // Switch to Spanish

See LOCALE.md for details.

extend(extension)

• @param {Object} extension - An extension object
• @returns {void}

It extends this library. See EXTEND.md for details.

plugin(plugin)

• @param {Function|string} plugin - A plugin installer or plugin name
• @returns {void}

Plugin is a named extension object. By installing predefined plugins, you can easily extend this library. See PLUGINS.md for details.

Browser Support

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer 6+.

License

MIT