Why doesn't this new Date work in javascript?

Question

I'm trying to display a date with format "MMM. dd HH:mm:ss.nnn". It is rendering it incorrectly in IE and I have spent quite some time and I can't figure out why I can't get this to work.

I know that Date.UTC returns the number of miliseconds in a Date object since Jan 1, 1970. So,

var newDate = new Date(Date.UTC(year, month[, date[, hrs[, min[, sec[, ms]]]]])
newDate.toString("MMM. dd HH:mm:ss.")+row.timestamp.getMilliseconds();

will work.

Example:

var newDate = new Date(Date.UTC(1950, 10, 10, 10, 09, 09, 100));
row.timestamp_f = newDate.toString("MMM. dd HH:mm:ss."); // Output => Nov. 10 05:09:09.

But, I am interating this from a jquey.each function so the date string that I am working with is an ISO 8601: "2013-03-12T15:14:10.483". So, this is what I have in mind.

var numMilisecond = Date.parse(row.timestamp);
var newDate = new Date(numMilisecond);
row.timestamp_f = newDate.toString("MMM. dd HH:mm:ss."); // Output => Dec. 31 19:00:00.

row.timestamp is from a JSON response

{"timestamp":"2013-03-12T15:14:10.483" ...}

Why doesn't the code work? Date.parse should return the number of miliseconds since Jan 1, 1970 and then I create a new Date obj and then convert it to string just like the code in the first snipet. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

[Please correct your code to use code blocks instead of blockquotes](http://stackoverflow.com/editing-help). — zzzzBov, Mar 12 '13 at 19:36
IE is using [non-standard `toString` behavior](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/toString) — Blazemonger, Mar 12 '13 at 19:36
possible duplicate of [Formatting a date in JavaScript](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1056728/formatting-a-date-in-javascript) — Blazemonger, Mar 12 '13 at 19:37
@zzzBov You might as well have corrected it in the time it took you to post that comment. :-) — James M, Mar 12 '13 at 19:38
@Blazemonger The 2nd code block doesn't work for Firefox as well. I get Dec. 31 19:00:00. with firefox and IE. — oky_sabeni, Mar 12 '13 at 19:48

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 12 '13 at 19:54

0

Date.toString shouldn't accept any arguments. If you want a true date-formatting solution, you'll need to use a plugin or roll your own.

var shortmonths = ['Jan','Feb','Mar','Apr',]; // remaining months are left as an exercise for the reader
row.timestamp_f = shortmonths[newDate.getMonth()]
                  + ". "+newDate.getDate() + " "
                  + newDate.toLocaleTimeString() + ".";

answered Mar 12 '13 at 19:54

Blazemonger

90,923
26
142
180

So I am totally embarrassed but it turns out there is a datejs which is doing a lot of magic in the background – oky_sabeni Mar 13 '13 at 16:50

Why doesn't this new Date work in javascript?

1 Answers1