Converting a datetime string to timestamp in Javascript

Question

Question in brief:

What is the easiest way to convert date-month-year hour(24):minute to timestamp?

due to more views add clear question on the top, so that no need to go through background & all if need quick help.

Background :

I have a simple html table and I used jquery sorter to sort my table columns.

Everything is working fine except a date column which is having following format of data,

17-09-2013 10:08
date-month-year hour(24):minute

This column is sorting(alphabetically) but not as I expected(date wise). I tried to use a custom parser as follows,

$.tablesorter.addParser({ 
    id: 'date_column',  // my column ID
    is: function(s) { 
        return false; 
    }, 
    format: function(s) { 
        var timeInMillis = new Date.parse(s);
        return timeInMillis;         
    }, 
    type: 'numeric' 
});

Problem : it fails due to new Date.parse(s) .

Question : what is the easiest way to convert date-month-year hour(24):minute to timestamp? then I can skip var timeInMillis = new Date.parse(s); line.

Thanks

Edited :

Sorry about the confusion about milliseconds, actually it should be the timestamp which is a number that represents the current time and date.

You can use moment.js: momentjs.com to convert time to milliseconds — Biketire
– Biketire, Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 12:13
What exactly do you mean convert to milliseconds? You can't just convert a date to milliseconds. A date is a reference to a specific point in time, milliseconds are a measurement of time from a specific point, if you see my meaning. You can get the number of milliseconds from a specific date, like the number of millis since 17-9-2013, but since you have an entire column of dates, I'm guessing this isn't what you want. Or you can add millis to the current time to get a more exact point, is this what you're looking for? — BeanBagKing
– BeanBagKing, Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 12:14
Look at the console when coding. Look at the documentation for Date.parse(). Is your date string in a valid format? The docs will tell you. — epascarello
– epascarello, Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 12:15

ObiHill · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-28 14:14:15Z

41

Parsing dates is a pain in JavaScript as there's no extensive native support. However you could do something like the following by relying on the Date(year, month, day [, hour, minute, second, millisecond]) constructor signature of the Date object.

var dateString = '17-09-2013 10:08',
    dateTimeParts = dateString.split(' '),
    timeParts = dateTimeParts[1].split(':'),
    dateParts = dateTimeParts[0].split('-'),
    date;

date = new Date(dateParts[2], parseInt(dateParts[1], 10) - 1, dateParts[0], timeParts[0], timeParts[1]);

console.log(date.getTime()); //1379426880000
console.log(date); //Tue Sep 17 2013 10:08:00 GMT-0400

You could also use a regular expression with capturing groups to parse the date string in one line.

var dateParts = '17-09-2013 10:08'.match(/(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+) (\d+):(\d+)/);

console.log(dateParts); // ["17-09-2013 10:08", "17", "09", "2013", "10", "08"]

edited Mar 28, 2016 at 14:14

ObiHill

12k25 gold badges93 silver badges142 bronze badges

answered Sep 17, 2013 at 12:29

plalx

43.8k7 gold badges77 silver badges94 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Janith Chinthana Over a year ago

what can I do with dateParts ?

plalx Over a year ago

@JanithChinthana Well, the regular expression example just shows an alternative way of parsing the date string instead of using multiple split calls.

Ben Over a year ago

Link to MDN (not W3)! Nice. +1

Nitin Over a year ago

@plalx, it is not working when var dateString = '17-09-2013 10:08:30'; basically not working when there is second counterpart

Rémi Becheras · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-16 12:58:38Z

19

Date.parse() isn't a constructor, its a static method.

So, just use

var timeInMillis = Date.parse(s);

instead of

var timeInMillis = new Date.parse(s);

answered Dec 16, 2014 at 12:58

Rémi Becheras

15.3k14 gold badges55 silver badges85 bronze badges

3 Comments

Bhavin Over a year ago

Date.parse() is the best solution. It works in every situation.

user621639 Over a year ago

Not true. I have an example with NaN

Rémi Becheras Over a year ago

So what is your example ? @GrávujMiklósHenrich

4b0 · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-18 09:05:08Z

8

Seems like the problem is with the date format.

 var d = "17-09-2013 10:08",
 dArr = d.split('-'),
 ts = new Date(dArr[1] + "-" + dArr[0] + "-" + dArr[2]).getTime(); // 1379392680000

edited Jun 18, 2018 at 9:05

4b0

22.4k30 gold badges97 silver badges143 bronze badges

answered Sep 17, 2013 at 12:18

user235273

9 Comments

Sumurai8 Over a year ago

Just as clarification: date-month-year hour(24):minute will be parsed as month-date-year hour(24):minute; that's what this fixes.

user235273 Over a year ago

@ Sumurai8: OP's question is what's the easiest way to convert the time into ms. What's the other part?

Janith Chinthana Over a year ago

I try this and it getting undefined in s.split('-')

Sumurai8 Over a year ago

@kadaj He came here in the first place because there was an error in his code. I suppose you are right though. I believe new Date(...).getTime() and Date.parse(...) do the same thing.

user235273 Over a year ago

@Janith Chinthana What does s print?

|

Community · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-25 13:12:21Z

For those of us using non-ISO standard date formats, like civilian vernacular 01/01/2001 (mm/dd/YYYY), including time in a 12hour date format with am/pm marks, the following function will return a valid Date object:

function convertDate(date) {

    // # valid js Date and time object format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS)
    var dateTimeParts = date.split(' ');

    // # this assumes time format has NO SPACE between time and am/pm marks.
    if (dateTimeParts[1].indexOf(' ') == -1 && dateTimeParts[2] === undefined) {

        var theTime = dateTimeParts[1];

        // # strip out all except numbers and colon
        var ampm = theTime.replace(/[0-9:]/g, '');

        // # strip out all except letters (for AM/PM)
        var time = theTime.replace(/[[^a-zA-Z]/g, '');

        if (ampm == 'pm') {

            time = time.split(':');

            // # if time is 12:00, don't add 12
            if (time[0] == 12) {
                time = parseInt(time[0]) + ':' + time[1] + ':00';
            } else {
                time = parseInt(time[0]) + 12 + ':' + time[1] + ':00';
            }

        } else { // if AM

            time = time.split(':');

            // # if AM is less than 10 o'clock, add leading zero
            if (time[0] < 10) {
                time = '0' + time[0] + ':' + time[1] + ':00';
            } else {
                time = time[0] + ':' + time[1] + ':00';
            }
        }
    }
    // # create a new date object from only the date part
    var dateObj = new Date(dateTimeParts[0]);

    // # add leading zero to date of the month if less than 10
    var dayOfMonth = (dateObj.getDate() < 10 ? ("0" + dateObj.getDate()) : dateObj.getDate());

    // # parse each date object part and put all parts together
    var yearMoDay = dateObj.getFullYear() + '-' + (dateObj.getMonth() + 1) + '-' + dayOfMonth;

    // # finally combine re-formatted date and re-formatted time!
    var date = new Date(yearMoDay + 'T' + time);

    return date;
}

Usage:

date = convertDate('11/15/2016 2:00pm');

Ank_247shbm · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-28 16:22:30Z

1

It is just as simple:

   var today = new Date(); // Thu Apr 28 2022 21:51:23 GMT+0530
   var todaysTimestamp = new Date().getTime();   // 1651162883379

answered Apr 28, 2022 at 16:22

Ank_247shbm

5487 silver badges18 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Converting a datetime string to timestamp in Javascript

5 Answers 5

4 Comments

3 Comments

9 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

5 Answers 5

4 Comments

3 Comments

9 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related