Best way to create a Date Object with this string in JS

Question

I'm receiving this date/time from an API:

2012-03-31 12:00:00

What is the best way to do this:

var date = new Date("2012-03-31 12:00:00") without Firefox complaining of an Invalid Date?

@FelixKling Really?? Is the use of a library needed to do this? — benhowdle89
– benhowdle89, Commented Feb 25, 2013 at 11:12
No it's not needed, you can also parse the string yourself and extract the fields and pass them to Date. — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Feb 25, 2013 at 11:13
@FelixKling Yeah, so at the moment, I'm doing: val = val.replace(/-/ig, ','); just seems a little hacky. — benhowdle89
– benhowdle89, Commented Feb 25, 2013 at 11:14

Felix Kling · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-25 11:22:26Z

3

You can match all the fields in the date time string with:

var str = "2012-03-31 12:00:00";
var fields = str.match(/^(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2}) (\d{2}):(\d{2}):(\d{2})$/);

Now fields[1] contains the year, fields[2] the month, etc. Then you can call Date with:

// months are zero-based, so we have to subtract 1
var date = new Date(+fields[1], +fields[2] - 1, +fields[3], +fields[4], +fields[5], +fields[6]);

Or use a library like http://momentjs.com/ which does this for you.

answered Feb 25, 2013 at 11:22

Felix Kling

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1 Comment

Nice answer, if your date string has in a different format just modify the regex groups and works.

loxxy · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-25 11:51:55Z

2

If you just want the date you could use:

var date = new Date("2012-03-31 12:00:00".split(" ")[0]);

& firefox wont complain.

answered Feb 25, 2013 at 11:51

loxxy

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