There is little (actually there is absolutely no) support in Javascript for formatting Date objects in a different formats when converting them to string, and for parsing dates from strings in different formats.

I have created a little “patch” to fix this issue, and to add the formatting and formatted parsing abilities to the Javascript Date object. This patch will add the following functions:

• Date.format(dateObject, format)
• dateObject.toFormattedString(format)
• Date.parseFormatted(value, format)
• dateObject.fromFormattedString(value, format)

The patch is called Javascript Date Format Patch, and it’s available on my github profile. Javascript Date Format Patch is dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses.

Format Description

When converting Date object to string, you can use any of the following format expressions, combined with other characters to get the output result you wish.

Usage

If you wish to use the Javascript Date Format Patch, you must:

1. download date-format.js from the Javascript Date Format Patch Downloads section of the repository, and choose either the minified version or the standard one
2. include it in your page like this:

   <script type="text/javascript" src="./js/date-format.js"></script>

3. read the format description
4. if you wish to localize the month and day names, read the localization part of this page

Then you will be able to format dates in desired format when converting to string like this:

• using Date class’s static function

  var d = new Date(2001, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7);
  Date.format(d, 'dd.MM.yyyy. HH:mm:ss.zzz');
  

• using Date object’s member function

  var d = new Date(2001, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7);
  d.toFormattedString('yyyy-MM-dd');
  

Then you will be able to parse dates in desired format like this:

• using Date class’s static function

  var d = new Date();
  d = Date.parseFormatted
  (
      '03.02.2001. 04:05:06.007',
      'dd.MM.yyyy. HH:mm:ss.zzz'
  );
  

• using Date object’s member function

  var d = new Date();
  d.fromFormattedString('2001-02-03', 'yyyy-MM-dd');
  

Localization

String representation of date values such as month names, day (of the week) names can be easily translated for any language, by replacing the values in the internationalization object.

For example:

// croatian localization
Date.formatLogic.i18n =
{
	dayNames:
	[
		'Nedjelja',
		'Ponedjeljak',
		'Utorak',
		'Srijeda',
		'Četvrtak',
		'Petak',
		'Subota'
	],
	shortDayNames:
	[
		'Ned',
		'Pon',
		'Uto',
		'Sri', 
		'Čet',
		'Pet',
		'Sub'
	],
	monthNames:
	[
		'Siječanj',
		'Veljača',
		'Ožujak',
		'Travanj',
		'Svibanj',
		'Lipanj',
		'Srpanj',
		'Kolovoz',
		'Rujan',
		'Listopad',
		'Studeni',
		'Prosinac'
	],
	shortMonthNames:
	[
		'Sij',
		'Vel',
		'Ožu',
		'Tra',
		'Svi',
		'Lip',
		'Srp',
		'Kol',
		'Ruj',
		'Lis',
		'Stu',
		'Pro'
	]
};

Croatian translation can also be downloaded from Javascript Date Format Patch Downloads section of the repository.