Current time formatting with Javascript

Question

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var d = new Date();
d.toLocaleString();       // -> "2/1/2013 7:37:08 AM"
d.toLocaleDateString();   // -> "2/1/2013"
d.toLocaleTimeString();  // -> "7:38:05 AM"

Documentation

A JavaScript Date has several methods allowing you to extract its parts:

getFullYear() - Returns the 4-digit year
getMonth() - Returns a zero-based integer (0-11) representing the month of the year.
getDate() - Returns the day of the month (1-31).
getDay() - Returns the day of the week (0-6). 0 is Sunday, 6 is Saturday.
getHours() - Returns the hour of the day (0-23).
getMinutes() - Returns the minute (0-59).
getSeconds() - Returns the second (0-59).
getMilliseconds() - Returns the milliseconds (0-999).
getTimezoneOffset() - Returns the number of minutes between the machine local time and UTC.

There are no built-in methods allowing you to get localized strings like "Friday", "February", or "PM". You have to code that yourself. To get the string you want, you at least need to store string representations of days and months:

var months = ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"];
var days = ["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"];

Then, put it together using the methods above:

var months = ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"];
var days = ["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"];
var d = new Date();
var day = days[d.getDay()];
var hr = d.getHours();
var min = d.getMinutes();
if (min < 10) {
    min = "0" + min;
}
var ampm = "am";
if( hr > 12 ) {
    hr -= 12;
    ampm = "pm";
}
var date = d.getDate();
var month = months[d.getMonth()];
var year = d.getFullYear();
var x = document.getElementById("time");
x.innerHTML = day + " " + hr + ":" + min + ampm + " " + date + " " + month + " " + year;

<span id="time"></span>

I have a date format function I like to include in my standard library. It takes a format string parameter that defines the desired output. The format strings are loosely based on .Net custom Date and Time format strings. For the format you specified the following format string would work: "dddd h:mmtt d MMM yyyy".

var d = new Date();
var x = document.getElementById("time");
x.innerHTML = formatDate(d, "dddd h:mmtt d MMM yyyy");

Demo: jsfiddle.net/BNkkB/1

Here is my full date formatting function:

function formatDate(date, format, utc) {
    var MMMM = ["\x00", "January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"];
    var MMM = ["\x01", "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"];
    var dddd = ["\x02", "Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"];
    var ddd = ["\x03", "Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat"];

    function ii(i, len) {
        var s = i + "";
        len = len || 2;
        while (s.length < len) s = "0" + s;
        return s;
    }

    var y = utc ? date.getUTCFullYear() : date.getFullYear();
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])yyyy+/g, "$1" + y);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])yy/g, "$1" + y.toString().substr(2, 2));
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])y/g, "$1" + y);

    var M = (utc ? date.getUTCMonth() : date.getMonth()) + 1;
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])MMMM+/g, "$1" + MMMM[0]);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])MMM/g, "$1" + MMM[0]);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])MM/g, "$1" + ii(M));
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])M/g, "$1" + M);

    var d = utc ? date.getUTCDate() : date.getDate();
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])dddd+/g, "$1" + dddd[0]);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])ddd/g, "$1" + ddd[0]);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])dd/g, "$1" + ii(d));
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])d/g, "$1" + d);

    var H = utc ? date.getUTCHours() : date.getHours();
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])HH+/g, "$1" + ii(H));
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])H/g, "$1" + H);

    var h = H > 12 ? H - 12 : H == 0 ? 12 : H;
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])hh+/g, "$1" + ii(h));
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])h/g, "$1" + h);

    var m = utc ? date.getUTCMinutes() : date.getMinutes();
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])mm+/g, "$1" + ii(m));
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])m/g, "$1" + m);

    var s = utc ? date.getUTCSeconds() : date.getSeconds();
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])ss+/g, "$1" + ii(s));
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])s/g, "$1" + s);

    var f = utc ? date.getUTCMilliseconds() : date.getMilliseconds();
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])fff+/g, "$1" + ii(f, 3));
    f = Math.round(f / 10);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])ff/g, "$1" + ii(f));
    f = Math.round(f / 10);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])f/g, "$1" + f);

    var T = H < 12 ? "AM" : "PM";
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])TT+/g, "$1" + T);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])T/g, "$1" + T.charAt(0));

    var t = T.toLowerCase();
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])tt+/g, "$1" + t);
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])t/g, "$1" + t.charAt(0));

    var tz = -date.getTimezoneOffset();
    var K = utc || !tz ? "Z" : tz > 0 ? "+" : "-";
    if (!utc) {
        tz = Math.abs(tz);
        var tzHrs = Math.floor(tz / 60);
        var tzMin = tz % 60;
        K += ii(tzHrs) + ":" + ii(tzMin);
    }
    format = format.replace(/(^|[^\\])K/g, "$1" + K);

    var day = (utc ? date.getUTCDay() : date.getDay()) + 1;
    format = format.replace(new RegExp(dddd[0], "g"), dddd[day]);
    format = format.replace(new RegExp(ddd[0], "g"), ddd[day]);

    format = format.replace(new RegExp(MMMM[0], "g"), MMMM[M]);
    format = format.replace(new RegExp(MMM[0], "g"), MMM[M]);

    format = format.replace(/\\(.)/g, "$1");

    return format;
};

2017 update: use toLocaleDateString and toLocaleTimeString to format dates and times. The first parameter passed to these methods is a locale value, such as en-us. The second parameter, where present, specifies formatting options, such as the long form for the weekday.

let date = new Date();  
let options = {  
    weekday: "long", year: "numeric", month: "short",  
    day: "numeric", hour: "2-digit", minute: "2-digit"  
};  

console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString("en-us", options)); 

Output : Wednesday, Oct 25, 2017, 8:19 PM

Please refer below link for more details.

Date and Time Strings (JavaScript)

You can use my port of strftime:

/* Port of strftime(). Compatibility notes:
 *
 * %c - formatted string is slightly different
 * %D - not implemented (use "%m/%d/%y" or "%d/%m/%y")
 * %e - space is not added
 * %E - not implemented
 * %h - not implemented (use "%b")
 * %k - space is not added
 * %n - not implemented (use "\n")
 * %O - not implemented
 * %r - not implemented (use "%I:%M:%S %p")
 * %R - not implemented (use "%H:%M")
 * %t - not implemented (use "\t")
 * %T - not implemented (use "%H:%M:%S")
 * %U - not implemented
 * %W - not implemented
 * %+ - not implemented
 * %% - not implemented (use "%")
 *
 * strftime() reference:
 * http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strftime.3.html
 *
 * Day of year (%j) code based on Joe Orost's answer:
 * http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8619879/javascript-calculate-the-day-of-the-year-1-366
 *
 * Week number (%V) code based on Taco van den Broek's prototype:
 * http://techblog.procurios.nl/k/news/view/33796/14863/calculate-iso-8601-week-and-year-in-javascript.html
 */
function strftime(sFormat, date) {
  if (!(date instanceof Date)) date = new Date();
  var nDay = date.getDay(),
    nDate = date.getDate(),
    nMonth = date.getMonth(),
    nYear = date.getFullYear(),
    nHour = date.getHours(),
    aDays = ['Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'],
    aMonths = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'],
    aDayCount = [0, 31, 59, 90, 120, 151, 181, 212, 243, 273, 304, 334],
    isLeapYear = function() {
      if ((nYear&3)!==0) return false;
      return nYear%100!==0 || nYear%400===0;
    },
    getThursday = function() {
      var target = new Date(date);
      target.setDate(nDate - ((nDay+6)%7) + 3);
      return target;
    },
    zeroPad = function(nNum, nPad) {
      return ('' + (Math.pow(10, nPad) + nNum)).slice(1);
    };
  return sFormat.replace(/%[a-z]/gi, function(sMatch) {
    return {
      '%a': aDays[nDay].slice(0,3),
      '%A': aDays[nDay],
      '%b': aMonths[nMonth].slice(0,3),
      '%B': aMonths[nMonth],
      '%c': date.toUTCString(),
      '%C': Math.floor(nYear/100),
      '%d': zeroPad(nDate, 2),
      '%e': nDate,
      '%F': date.toISOString().slice(0,10),
      '%G': getThursday().getFullYear(),
      '%g': ('' + getThursday().getFullYear()).slice(2),
      '%H': zeroPad(nHour, 2),
      '%I': zeroPad((nHour+11)%12 + 1, 2),
      '%j': zeroPad(aDayCount[nMonth] + nDate + ((nMonth>1 && isLeapYear()) ? 1 : 0), 3),
      '%k': '' + nHour,
      '%l': (nHour+11)%12 + 1,
      '%m': zeroPad(nMonth + 1, 2),
      '%M': zeroPad(date.getMinutes(), 2),
      '%p': (nHour<12) ? 'AM' : 'PM',
      '%P': (nHour<12) ? 'am' : 'pm',
      '%s': Math.round(date.getTime()/1000),
      '%S': zeroPad(date.getSeconds(), 2),
      '%u': nDay || 7,
      '%V': (function() {
              var target = getThursday(),
                n1stThu = target.valueOf();
              target.setMonth(0, 1);
              var nJan1 = target.getDay();
              if (nJan1!==4) target.setMonth(0, 1 + ((4-nJan1)+7)%7);
              return zeroPad(1 + Math.ceil((n1stThu-target)/604800000), 2);
            })(),
      '%w': '' + nDay,
      '%x': date.toLocaleDateString(),
      '%X': date.toLocaleTimeString(),
      '%y': ('' + nYear).slice(2),
      '%Y': nYear,
      '%z': date.toTimeString().replace(/.+GMT([+-]\d+).+/, '$1'),
      '%Z': date.toTimeString().replace(/.+\((.+?)\)$/, '$1')
    }[sMatch] || sMatch;
  });
}

Sample usage:

// Returns "Thursday 4:45pm 15 Sep 2016"
strftime('%A %l:%M%P %e %b %Y');

// You can optionally pass it a Date object
// Returns "Friday 2:00pm 1 Feb 2013"
strftime('%A %l:%M%P %e %b %Y', new Date('Feb 1, 2013 2:00 PM'));

The latest code is available here: https://github.com/thdoan/strftime

Look at the internals of the Date class and you will see that you can extract all the bits (date, month, year, hour, etc).

http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_obj_date.asp

For something like Fri 23:00 1 Feb 2013 the code is like:

date = new Date();

weekdayNames = ['Sun', 'Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri', 'Sat'];
monthNames = ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"];
var dateString = weekdayNames[date.getDay()] + " " 
    + date.getHours() + ":" + ("00" + date.getMinutes()).slice(-2) + " " 
    + date.getDate() + " " + monthNames[date.getMonth()] + " " + date.getFullYear();

console.log(dateString);

**** Modified 2019-05-29 to keep 3 downvoters happy

There are many great libraries out there, for those interested

• http://www.datejs.com/
• http://momentjs.com/
• https://github.com/samsonjs/strftime

There really shouldn't be a need these days to invent your own formatting specifiers.