JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Name

Date — manipulate dates and times

Availability

JavaScript 1.0; JScript 1.0; ECMAScript v1

Inherits from/Overrides

Inherits from Object

Constructor

new Date( )
new Date(milliseconds)
new Date(datestring)
new Date(year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds, ms)

With no arguments, the Date( ) constructor creates a Date object set to the current date and time. When one numeric argument is passed, it is taken as the internal numeric representation of the date in milliseconds, as returned by the getTime( ) method. When one string argument is passed, it is a string representation of a date, in the format accepted by the Date.parse( ) method. Otherwise, the constructor is passed between two and seven numeric arguments that specify the individual fields of the date and time. All but the first two arguments -- the year and month fields -- are optional. Note that these date and time fields are specified using local time, not UTC (similar to GMT) time. See the static Date.UTC( ) method for an alternative.

Date( ) may also be called as a function, without the new operator. When invoked in this way, Date( ) ignores any arguments passed to it and returns a string representation of the current date and time.

Arguments

milliseconds

The number of milliseconds between the desired date and midnight on January 1, 1970 (UTC). For example, passing the argument 5000 would create a date that represents five seconds past midnight on 1/1/70.

datestring

A single argument that specifies the date and, optionally, ...