date2string

A JavaScript implementation of the PHP date_format function

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import date2string from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/date2string';
</script>

README

date2string

Format a date according to the given format string. The accepted format characters are the same as for the "date" function in PHP. Use \\ to escape letters from being interpreted (see example).

Installation

Using npm:

$ npm install date2string

Usage

In Node.js:

const date2string = require('date2string');

console.log(date2string(new Date(), 'Y-m-d H:i:s'));
// 2018-07-09 15:33:24

console.log(date2string(new Date(), '\\T\\o\\d\\a\\y \\i\\s l, \\t\\h\\e jS \\o\\f F Y. \\T\\h\\e \\c\\u\\r\\r\\e\\n\\t \\t\\i\\m\\e \\i\\s h:i:s A.'));
// Today is Friday, the 31st of August 2018. The current time is 09:46:02 PM.

In a web browser:

<script src="node_modules/date2string/date2string.min.js"></script>

<script>
    console.log('Has 2016 been a leap year? ' + (date2string(new Date('2016'), 'L') === '1' ? 'YES' : 'NO'));
    // Has 2016 been a leap year? YES
</script>

The date2string.min.js file is a minified and ES5 compatible version of date2string that is working in most browsers including Internet Explorer 9+.

Available format characters

Format character Description Example returned values
Day
d Day of the month, 2 digits with leading zeros 01 to 31
D A textual representation of a day, three letters Mon through Sun
j Day of the month without leading zeros 1 to 31
l (lowercase 'L') A full textual representation of the day of the week Sunday through Saturday
N ISO-8601 numeric representation of the day of the week 1 (for Monday) through 7 (for Sunday)
S English ordinal suffix for the day of the month, 2 characters st, nd, rd or th. Works well with j
w Numeric representation of the day of the week 0 (for Sunday) through 6 (for Saturday)
z The day of the year (starting from 0) 0 through 365
Week
W ISO-8601 week number of year, weeks starting on Monday Example: 42 (the 42nd week in the year)
Month
F A full textual representation of a month, such as January or March January through December
m Numeric representation of a month, with leading zeros 01 through 12
M A short textual representation of a month, three letters Jan through Dec
n Numeric representation of a month, without leading zeros 1 through 12
t Number of days in the given month 28 through 31
Year
L Whether it's a leap year 1 if it is a leap year, 0 otherwise.
o ISO-8601 week-numbering year. This has the same value as Y, except that if the ISO week number (W) belongs to the previous or next year, that year is used instead. Examples: 1999 or 2003
Y A full numeric representation of a year, 4 digits Examples: 1999 or 2003
y A two digit representation of a year Examples: 99 or 03
Time
a Lowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem am or pm
A Uppercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiem AM or PM
B Swatch Internet time 000 through 999
g 12-hour format of an hour without leading zeros 1 through 12
G 24-hour format of an hour without leading zeros 0 through 23
h 12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros 01 through 12
H 24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros 00 through 23
i Minutes with leading zeros 00 to 59
s Seconds, with leading zeros 00 through 59
u Microseconds (the last 3 digits are always 000) Example: 654000
v Milliseconds Example: 654
Timezone
e Timezone identifier Examples: Europe/Berlin or Atlantic/Azores
I (capital 'i') Whether or not the date is in daylight saving time 1 if daylight saving time, 0 otherwise.
O Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) in hours Example: +0200
P Difference to Greenwich time (GMT) with colon between hours and minutes Example: +02:00
p The same as P, but returns Z instead of +00:00 Example: +02:00
T Timezone abbreviation Examples: AST, GMT+2
Z Timezone offset in seconds. The offset for timezones west of UTC is always negative, and for those east of UTC always positive. -43200 through 50400
Full Date/Time
c ISO-8601 date Example: 2004-02-12T15:19:21+00:00
r RFC 2822 formatted date Example: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 +0200
U Seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT) Example: 1276782742

Localization

The weekday and month names can be translated by setting the array properties "wdays" and "months" of date2string. Note that the weekdays array must begin with Sunday.

date2string.wdays = ['Sonntag', 'Montag', 'Dienstag', 'Mittwoch', 'Donnerstag', 'Freitag', 'Samstag', 'Sonntag'];
date2string.months = ['Januar', 'Februar', 'März', 'April', 'Mai', 'Juni', 'Juli', 'August', 'September', 'Oktober', 'November', 'Dezember'];

console.log(date2string(new Date(), 'l, j. M \'y'));
// Montag, 4. Okt '19

Known bugs and limitations

  • The format character "e" (timezone identifier) is giving invalid results in Internet Explorer (and maybe other browsers).