I currently have a date which is formatted in PHP like this date('D d F g:i A Y', $l2['available']) which outputs a date in this format: Tue 15 May 5:45 PM 2012
I want to achieve this same format in Javascript/jQuery.
So far I've done this:
var lessonTime = new Date(data.lessons[i].available * 1000);
lessonTime.toDateString();
which results in the date below:
Thu Mar 22 2012
Is there a way to control the format like you can with PHP date function?
I wrote moment.js and it's pretty good at date manipulation and formatting.
moment().format('ddd D MMM h:mm A YYYY');
It's also faster and smaller than Date.js and doesn't modify the Date.prototype which is generally considered unsafe.
There's very little native date formatting in JavaScript, nothing comparable to the PHP formatting capabilities. There are a few libraries that can help with this:
Date.js extends Date.toString() to accept formatting parameters
jQuery has a dateFormat plugin
D3.js has time-formatting support - even if you don't use the whole library, you could probably use the time formatter by itself.
http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/date-time-format
var now = new Date();
dateFormat(now, "ddd dd mmm h:MM TT yyyy");
the code
/*
* Date Format 1.2.3
* (c) 2007-2009 Steven Levithan <stevenlevithan.com>
* MIT license
*
* Includes enhancements by Scott Trenda <scott.trenda.net>
* and Kris Kowal <cixar.com/~kris.kowal/>
*
* Accepts a date, a mask, or a date and a mask.
* Returns a formatted version of the given date.
* The date defaults to the current date/time.
* The mask defaults to dateFormat.masks.default.
*/
var dateFormat = function () {
var token = /d{1,4}|m{1,4}|yy(?:yy)?|([HhMsTt])\1?|[LloSZ]|"[^"]*"|'[^']*'/g,
timezone = /\b(?:[PMCEA][SDP]T|(?:Pacific|Mountain|Central|Eastern|Atlantic) (?:Standard|Daylight|Prevailing) Time|(?:GMT|UTC)(?:[-+]\d{4})?)\b/g,
timezoneClip = /[^-+\dA-Z]/g,
pad = function (val, len) {
val = String(val);
len = len || 2;
while (val.length < len) val = "0" + val;
return val;
};
// Regexes and supporting functions are cached through closure
return function (date, mask, utc) {
var dF = dateFormat;
// You can't provide utc if you skip other args (use the "UTC:" mask prefix)
if (arguments.length == 1 && Object.prototype.toString.call(date) == "[object String]" && !/\d/.test(date)) {
mask = date;
date = undefined;
}
// Passing date through Date applies Date.parse, if necessary
date = date ? new Date(date) : new Date;
if (isNaN(date)) throw SyntaxError("invalid date");
mask = String(dF.masks[mask] || mask || dF.masks["default"]);
// Allow setting the utc argument via the mask
if (mask.slice(0, 4) == "UTC:") {
mask = mask.slice(4);
utc = true;
}
var _ = utc ? "getUTC" : "get",
d = date[_ + "Date"](),
D = date[_ + "Day"](),
m = date[_ + "Month"](),
y = date[_ + "FullYear"](),
H = date[_ + "Hours"](),
M = date[_ + "Minutes"](),
s = date[_ + "Seconds"](),
L = date[_ + "Milliseconds"](),
o = utc ? 0 : date.getTimezoneOffset(),
flags = {
d: d,
dd: pad(d),
ddd: dF.i18n.dayNames[D],
dddd: dF.i18n.dayNames[D + 7],
m: m + 1,
mm: pad(m + 1),
mmm: dF.i18n.monthNames[m],
mmmm: dF.i18n.monthNames[m + 12],
yy: String(y).slice(2),
yyyy: y,
h: H % 12 || 12,
hh: pad(H % 12 || 12),
H: H,
HH: pad(H),
M: M,
MM: pad(M),
s: s,
ss: pad(s),
l: pad(L, 3),
L: pad(L > 99 ? Math.round(L / 10) : L),
t: H < 12 ? "a" : "p",
tt: H < 12 ? "am" : "pm",
T: H < 12 ? "A" : "P",
TT: H < 12 ? "AM" : "PM",
Z: utc ? "UTC" : (String(date).match(timezone) || [""]).pop().replace(timezoneClip, ""),
o: (o > 0 ? "-" : "+") + pad(Math.floor(Math.abs(o) / 60) * 100 + Math.abs(o) % 60, 4),
S: ["th", "st", "nd", "rd"][d % 10 > 3 ? 0 : (d % 100 - d % 10 != 10) * d % 10]
};
return mask.replace(token, function ($0) {
return $0 in flags ? flags[$0] : $0.slice(1, $0.length - 1);
});
};
}();
// Some common format strings
dateFormat.masks = {
"default": "ddd mmm dd yyyy HH:MM:ss",
shortDate: "m/d/yy",
mediumDate: "mmm d, yyyy",
longDate: "mmmm d, yyyy",
fullDate: "dddd, mmmm d, yyyy",
shortTime: "h:MM TT",
mediumTime: "h:MM:ss TT",
longTime: "h:MM:ss TT Z",
isoDate: "yyyy-mm-dd",
isoTime: "HH:MM:ss",
isoDateTime: "yyyy-mm-dd'T'HH:MM:ss",
isoUtcDateTime: "UTC:yyyy-mm-dd'T'HH:MM:ss'Z'"
};
// Internationalization strings
dateFormat.i18n = {
dayNames: [
"Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat",
"Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"
],
monthNames: [
"Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec",
"January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"
]
};
// For convenience...
Date.prototype.format = function (mask, utc) {
return dateFormat(this, mask, utc);
};
