.datepicker('setdate') issues, in jQuery

Question

I have a function that executes a query to get some data based on a certain date range which is selected using .datepicker(). I am trying to set the datepicker's that are in the response data back to the date range which was selected before the query was executed.

queryDate = '2009-11-01'; $('#datePicker').datepicker('setDate', queryDate); 

has the interesting result of setting the datepicker to today's date! I wouldn't be so confused if it just spit out an error. Why does it set it to today's date?

How can I take the date which is formated like, 'yyyy-mm-dd' and set the datepicker to it?

I am thinking it might be best to just set the text-box which the datepicker is linked to to 'queryDate'.

Answer 1

When you trying to call setDate you must provide valid javascript Date object.

queryDate = '2009-11-01';  var parsedDate = $.datepicker.parseDate('yy-mm-dd', queryDate);  $('#datePicker').datepicker('setDate', parsedDate); 

This will allow you to use different formats for query date and string date representation in datepicker. This approach is very helpful when you create multilingual site. Another helpful function is formatDate, which formats javascript date object to string.

$.datepicker.formatDate( format, date, settings ); 

Answer 2

If you would like to support really old browsers you should parse the date string, since using the ISO8601 date format with the Date constructor is not supported pre IE9:

var queryDate = '2009-11-01',     dateParts = queryDate.match(/(\d+)/g)     realDate = new Date(dateParts[0], dateParts[1] - 1, dateParts[2]);                                       // months are 0-based! // For >= IE9 var realDate = new Date('2009-11-01');    $('#datePicker').datepicker({ dateFormat: 'yy-mm-dd' }); // format to show $('#datePicker').datepicker('setDate', realDate); 

Check the above example here.