Date format conversion in JavaScript

Question

I wondering what is the best way to convert a timestamp of this format -

2012-02-18 14:28:32

to a date presentation of this format -

Saturday Feb 2012 14:28:32

Many thanks :)

Answer 1

You must first define an array of the English words (Sunday, Monday, Feb, Mar, etc.):

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

To be able insert the extra 0 at the beginning of the minutes and seconds, define a padding function for the String prototype:

String.prototype.padLeft = function(padString,length){
    var toReturn = String(this);
    while(toReturn.length < length){
        toReturn = padString + toReturn;
    }
    return toReturn;
}

Format the date and time like this:

var time = new Date(), formattedDate, formattedTime, wholeThing;
formattedDate = daysOfWeek[time.getDay()] + ", " + monthsOfYear[time.getMonth()] + " " + time.getDate() + ", " + time.getFullYear();
formattedTime = time.getHours() + ":" + time.getMinutes().padLeft("0",2) + time.getSeconds().padLeft("0",2);

You can get the whole thing by concatenating formattedDate and formattedTime, as in:

wholeThing = formattedDate + " " + formattedTime;

Answer 2

I'd suggest using an external js library to do that. To my understanding, Moment.js is the best date-time conversion library out there.

In this case, it does the job in one line. Just add the moment.js in you project and then do

var timestamp = '2012-02-18 14:28:32';
var formattedTime = moment(timestamp).format('dddd MMM YYYY HH:mm:ss'); // Saturday Feb 2012 14:28:32