How do I get the difference between two Dates in JavaScript?

Question

In JavaScript, dates can be transformed to the number of milliseconds since the epoc by calling the getTime() method or just using the date in a numeric expression.

So to get the difference, just subtract the two dates.

To create a new date based on the difference, just pass the number of milliseconds in the constructor.

var oldBegin = ...
var oldEnd = ...
var newBegin = ...

var newEnd = new Date(newBegin + oldEnd - oldBegin);

This should just work

EDIT: Fixed bug pointed by @bdukes

EDIT:

For an explanation of the behavior, oldBegin, oldEnd, and newBegin are Date instances. Calling operators + and - will trigger Javascript auto casting and will automatically call the valueOf() prototype method of those objects. It happens that the valueOf() method is implemented in the Date object as a call to getTime().

So basically: date.getTime() === date.valueOf() === (0 + date) === (+date)

JavaScript perfectly supports date difference out of the box

https://jsfiddle.net/b9chris/v5twbe3h/

var msMinute = 60*1000, 
    msDay = 60*60*24*1000,
    a = new Date(2012, 2, 12, 23, 59, 59),
    b = new Date("2013 march 12");


console.log(Math.floor((b - a) / msDay) + ' full days between'); // 364
console.log(Math.floor(((b - a) % msDay) / msMinute) + ' full minutes between'); // 0

---

Now some pitfalls. Try this:

console.log(a - 10); // 1331614798990
console.log(a + 10); // mixed string

So if you have risk of adding a number and Date, convert Date to number directly.

console.log(a.getTime() - 10); // 1331614798990
console.log(a.getTime() + 10); // 1331614799010

My fist example demonstrates the power of Date object but it actually appears to be a time bomb

See JsFiddle DEMO

    var date1 = new Date();    
    var date2 = new Date("2025/07/30 21:59:00");
    //Customise date2 for your required future time

    showDiff();

function showDiff(date1, date2){

    var diff = (date2 - date1)/1000;
    diff = Math.abs(Math.floor(diff));

    var days = Math.floor(diff/(24*60*60));
    var leftSec = diff - days * 24*60*60;

    var hrs = Math.floor(leftSec/(60*60));
    var leftSec = leftSec - hrs * 60*60;

    var min = Math.floor(leftSec/(60));
    var leftSec = leftSec - min * 60;

    document.getElementById("showTime").innerHTML = "You have " + days + " days " + hrs + " hours " + min + " minutes and " + leftSec + " seconds before death.";

setTimeout(showDiff,1000);
}

for your HTML Code:

<div id="showTime"></div>

If you don't care about the time component, you can use .getDate() and .setDate() to just set the date part.

So to set your end date to 2 weeks after your start date, do something like this:

function GetEndDate(startDate)
{
    var endDate = new Date(startDate.getTime());
    endDate.setDate(endDate.getDate()+14);
    return endDate;
}

To return the difference (in days) between two dates, do this:

function GetDateDiff(startDate, endDate)
{
    return endDate.getDate() - startDate.getDate();
}

Finally, let's modify the first function so it can take the value returned by 2nd as a parameter:

function GetEndDate(startDate, days)
{
    var endDate = new Date(startDate.getTime());
    endDate.setDate(endDate.getDate() + days);
    return endDate;
}