JS - Date Object

Objects that contain values that represent dates and times, these date objects can be formatted and changed.

const date1 = new Date()

console.log(date1)
// 2026-04-13T01:40:46.976Z

This gives me current date and time of my local machine.

Setting dates

// Date(year, month, day, hour, minute, second, ms)
const date2 = new Date(2024, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

console.log(date2)
// Mon Jan 01 2024 02:03:04 GMT+0530

We can also set it using a string

const date2 = new Date("2024-01-02T12:00:00Z")

T -> Time

Z -> UTC

We can also set date using milliseconds.

So if we set it to zero we get the starting time or the "zero" for time.

const date2 = new Date(0)

console.log(date2)
// Thu Jan 01 1970 05:30:00 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)

Now if we have a value in milliseconds it will store the date those milliseconds after the epic date.

const date2 = new Date(100000000000000)

console.log(date2)
// Wed Nov 16 5138 15:16:40 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)

using set methods

const date = new Date()

date.setUTCFullYear(2026)
date.setUTCMonth(0)
date.setUTCDate(1)
date.setUTCHours(2)
date.setUTCMinutes(3)
date.setUTCSeconds(3)

console.log(date)
// 2026-01-01T02:03:03.052Z 

console.log(date.toUTCString())
// Thu, 01 Jan 2026 02:03:03 GMT

omit the 'UTC' to set time in your local timezone, eg :- setFullYear()

Getting values

const date = new Date("2026-06-03T12:00:20Z")

console.log(date.getFullYear())
console.log(date.getMonth()) // starts from 0
console.log(date.getDate())
console.log(date.getHours())
console.log(date.getMinutes())
console.log(date.getSeconds())
console.log(date.getDay()) // starts from 0

Output

2026
5
3
17
30
20
3

Comparing dates

const date1 = new Date("2025-12-31")
const date2 = new Date("2026-01-01")

if(date2 > date1){
    console.log("Happy 2026!")
}

// Output : Happy 2026!

These were all the basic methods one must know, for more methods refer MDN docs