Date object

	JavaScript Programmer's Reference
Prev	Home	Up		Next

Availability:

ECMAScript edition - 2

JavaScript - 1.0

JScript - 1.0

Internet Explorer - 3.02

Netscape - 2.0

Netscape Enterprise Server - 2.0

Opera - 3.0

JavaScript syntax: - myDate = Date

N myDate = myEvent.timeStamp

N myDate = myMouseEvent.timeStamp

N myDate = myMutationEvent.timeStamp

N myDate = myUIEvent.timeStamp

- myDate = new Date()

Object properties: constructor, length, prototype

Class methods: parse(), UTC()

Object methods: getDate(), getDay(), getFullYear(), getHours(), getMilliseconds(), getMinutes(), getMonth(), getSeconds(), getTime(), getTimezoneOffset(), getUTCDate(), getUTCDay(), getUTCFullYear(), getUTCHours(), getUTCMilliseconds(), getUTCMinutes(), getUTCMonth(), getUTCSeconds(), getVarDate(), getYear(), parse(), setDate(), setFullYear(), setHours(), setMilliseconds(), setMinutes(), setMonth(), setSeconds(), setTime(), setUTCDate(), setUTCFullYear(), setUTCHours(), setUTCMilliseconds(), setUTCMinutes(), setUTCMonth(), setUTCSeconds(), setYear(), toDateString(), toGMTString(), toLocaleDateString(), toLocaleString(), toLocaleTimeString(), toSource(), toString(), toTimeString(), toUTCString(), valueOf()

A Date object contains a number that denotes a particular instant in time that is accurate to within a millisecond. The number value may also contain NaN, which indicates that the Date object does not represent a valid instant in time.

The prototype for the Date prototype object is the Object prototype object.

Instances of the Date object have no special properties beyond those they inherit from the Date.prototype object.

JavaScript version 1.2 and the ECMAScript standard both mandate additional methods that the Date object should support. These are generally useful when computing year numbers higher than 1999.

Warnings:

The Date object is particularly bug prone in Netscape 2. If this browser version is important, you may need to provide significant amounts of date correcting logic or avoid the use of date values altogether.

Example code:

   <!-- Display time since document loaded --->

   <HTML>

   <HEAD>

   <SCRIPT>

   window.myDate1 = new Date();

   </SCRIPT>

   </HEAD>

   <BODY>

   <DIV ID="TEXTCELL">

   0000

   </DIV>

   <FORM>

   <INPUT TYPE="button" VALUE="CLICK ME" onClick="clickMe()">

   </FORM>

   <SCRIPT>

   function clickMe()

   {

   myDate2 = new Date();

   myDelta = myDate2 - window.myDate1;

   document.all.TEXTCELL.innerText = myDelta/1000;

   }

   </SCRIPT>

   </BODY>

   </HTML>

Property	JavaScript	JScript	N	IE	Opera	NES	ECMA	Notes
`constructor`	1.1	1.0	3.0	3.02			2	-
`length`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	ReadOnly, DontEnum.
`prototype`	1.1	3.0	3.0	4.0	3.0	2.0	2	ReadOnly, DontDelete, DontEnum.

Method	JavaScript	JScript	N	IE	Opera	NES	ECMA	Notes
`getDate()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`getDay()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`getFullYear()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getHours()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`getMilliseconds()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getMinutes()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`getMonth()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`getSeconds()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`getTime()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`getTimezoneOffset()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2
`getUTCDate()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getUTCDay()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getUTCFullYear()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2
`getUTCHours()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getUTCMilliseconds()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getUTCMinutes()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getUTCMonth()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getUTCSeconds()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`getVarDate()`		3.0		4.0				-
`getYear()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	, Deprecated
`parse()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`setDate()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`setFullYear()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setHours()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`setMilliseconds()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setMinutes()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`setMonth()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`setSeconds()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`setTime()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`setUTCDate()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setUTCFullYear()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setUTCHours()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setUTCMilliseconds()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setUTCMinutes()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setUTCMonth()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setUTCSeconds()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`setYear()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	, Deprecated
`toDateString()`	1.5	5.5	6.0	5.5			3	-
`toGMTString()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	, Deprecated
`toLocaleDateString()`	1.5	5.5	6.0	5.5			3	-
`toLocaleString()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2	-
`toLocaleTimeString()`	1.5	5.5	6.0	5.5			3	-
`toSource()`	1.3	3.0	4.06	4.0			3	-
`toString()`	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.02	3.0	2.0	2
`toTimeString()`	1.5	5.5	6.0	5.5			3	-
`toUTCString()`	1.2	3.0	4.0	4.0			2	-
`valueOf()`	1.1	3.0	3.0	4.0			2	-

Cross-references:

ECMA 262 edition 2 - section - 10.1.5

ECMA 262 edition 2 - section - 15.9

ECMA 262 edition 2 - section - 15.9.6

ECMA 262 edition 3 - section - 10.1.5

ECMA 262 edition 3 - section - 15.9

O'Reilly JavaScript Definitive Guide - page - 48

Prev	Home	Next
Date number	Up	Date()
JavaScript Programmer's Reference, Cliff Wootton Wrox Press (www.wrox.com) Join the Wrox JavaScript forum at p2p.wrox.com Please report problems to support@wrox.com © 2001 Wrox Press. All Rights Reserved. Terms and conditions.

JavaScriptProgrammer'sReference

Date object (Object/core)

Warnings:

Example code:

Cross-references:

JavaScript
Programmer's
Reference