Date.parse()
The Date.parse() static method parses a string representation of a date, and returns the date's timestamp.
Only the date time string format is explicitly specified to be supported. Other formats are implementation-defined and may not work across all browsers. A library can help if many different formats are to be accommodated.
Try it
Syntax
js
Date.parse(dateString)
Parameters
dateString-
A string in the date time string format. See the linked reference for caveats on using different formats.
Return value
Description
This function is useful for setting date values based on string values, for example in conjunction with the setTime() method.
Because parse() is a static method of Date, you always use it as Date.parse(), rather than as a method of a Date object you created.
Examples
Using Date.parse()
The following calls all return 1546300800000. The first will imply UTC time because it's date-only, and the others explicitly specify the UTC timezone.
js
Date.parse("2019-01-01");
Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00.000Z");
Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00");
The following call, which does not specify a time zone will be set to 2019-01-01 at 00:00:00 in the local timezone of the system, because it has both date and time.
js
Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00");
Non-standard date strings
Note: This section contains implementation-specific behavior that can be inconsistent across implementations.
Implementations usually default to the local time zone when the date string is non-standard. For consistency, we will assume that the code uses the UTC timezone.
js
Date.parse("Jan 1, 1970"); // 0 in all implementations
Date.parse("Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00"); // 0 in all implementations
Date.parse("1970,1,1"); // 0 in Chrome and Firefox, NaN in Safari
Date.parse("02 01 1970");
// 2678400000 in Chrome and Firefox (Sun Feb 01 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0000);
// NaN in Safari
// With explicit timezone
Date.parse("Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0300");
// -10800000 in all implementations in all timezones
// Single number
Date.parse("0");
// 946684800000 in Chrome (Sat Jan 01 2000 00:00:00 GMT+0000);
// NaN in Firefox;
// -62167219200000 in Safari (Sat Jan 01 0000 00:00:00 GMT+0000)
// Two-digit number that may be a month
Date.parse("28"); // NaN in all implementations
// Two-digit year
Date.parse("70/01/01"); // 0 in all implementations
// Out-of-bounds date components
Date.parse("2014-25-23"); // NaN in all implementations
Date.parse("Mar 32, 2014"); // NaN in all implementations
Date.parse("2014/25/23"); // NaN in all implementations
Date.parse("2014-02-30");
// NaN in Safari and Firefox;
// 1393718400000 in Chrome (Sun Mar 02 2014 00:00:00 GMT+0000)
Date.parse("02/30/2014"); // 1393718400000 in all implementations
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-date.parse |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser