Date.prototype.toString()
The toString()
method of Date
instances returns a string representing this date interpreted in the local timezone.
Try it
Syntax
js
toString()
Return value
A string representing the given date (see description for the format). Returns "Invalid Date"
if the date is invalid.
Description
The toString()
method is part of the type coercion protocol. Because Date
has a [@@toPrimitive]()
method, that method always takes priority over toString()
when a Date
object is implicitly coerced to a string. However, Date.prototype[@@toPrimitive]()
still calls this.toString()
internally.
The Date
object overrides the toString()
method of Object
. Date.prototype.toString()
returns a string representation of the Date as interpreted in the local timezone, containing both the date and the time — it joins the string representation specified in toDateString()
and toTimeString()
together, adding a space in between. For example: "Thu Jan 01 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)".
Date.prototype.toString()
must be called on Date
instances. If the this
value does not inherit from Date.prototype
, a TypeError
is thrown.
- If you only want to get the date part, use
toDateString()
. - If you only want to get the time part, use
toTimeString()
. - If you want to make the date interpreted as UTC instead of local timezone, use
toUTCString()
. - If you want to format the date in a more user-friendly format (e.g. localization), use
toUTCString()
.
Examples
Using toString()
js
const d = new Date(0);
console.log(d.toString()); // "Thu Jan 01 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)"
Specifications
Specification |
---|
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-date.prototype.tostring |
Browser compatibility
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