Incredibly strange JavaScript date issue

Question

The code:

function format_date( date, index )
{
    if ( !date || ( index && !( date[ index ] ) ) )
    {
        return '';
    }

    console.log( date );

    var date = new Date(
        ( index === undefined ) ? date : date[ index ]
    );

    console.log( date );


    return ( date.getMonth() + 1 ) + '/' +
        date.getDate() + '/' +
        date.getFullYear() + ' 12:00 AM'
    ;
};

format_date( "2013-07-25" );

Output:

2013-07-25
Date {Wed Jul 24 2013 20:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Standard Time)}
"7/24/2013 12:00 AM"

This is on a node JS server running on Linux. The output from date is:

Fri Aug  2 10:39:28 EDT 2013

And what is the problem? Maybe you are confused because the date parsed on new Date(...) is considered GMT, while you are using getDate() instead of getUTCDate() when manually parsing? — randunel
– randunel, Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 14:46
hey you might be interested in the time/date library moment.js to do this kind of stuff easily — Plato
– Plato, Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:19
@Plato That is an exceptionally cool library, but might be more than what I need. — Jonathan Rich
– Jonathan Rich, Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 15:41
This is just one of many things screwy with JS Date. Moment.js will make your life much easier. Even if you only use pieces of it. — Matt Johnson-Pint
– Matt Johnson-Pint, Commented Aug 2, 2013 at 16:28

Michael · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-02 16:21:36Z

2

Unless you specify a timezone offset, it assumes that your date is in GMT time.

answered Aug 2, 2013 at 16:21

Michael

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1 Comment

Matt Johnson-Pint Over a year ago

True, but only because the string is entered with dashes as separators. If it was provided as "2013/07/25" instead, then it would be interpreted as local time. All the better to use moment.js

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