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Date.parse()

The Date.parse() static method parses a string representation of a date, and returns the date's timestamp.

Only the date time string format is explicitly specified to be supported. Other formats are implementation-defined and may not work across all browsers. A library can help if many different formats are to be accommodated.

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Syntax

Date.parse(dateString)

Parameters

dateString: A string in the date time string format. See the linked reference for caveats on using different formats.

Return value

A number representing the timestamp of the given date. If dateString fails to be parsed as a valid date, NaN is returned.

Description

This function is useful for setting date values based on string values, for example in conjunction with the setTime() method.

Because parse() is a static method of Date, you always use it as Date.parse(), rather than as a method of a Date object you created.

Examples

Using Date.parse()

The following calls all return 1546300800000. The first will imply UTC time because it's date-only, and the others explicitly specify the UTC timezone.

Date.parse("2019-01-01");
Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00.000Z");
Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00");

The following call, which does not specify a time zone will be set to 2019-01-01 at 00:00:00 in the local timezone of the system, because it has both date and time.

Date.parse("2019-01-01T00:00:00");

Non-standard date strings

Note: This section contains implementation-specific behavior that can be inconsistent across implementations.

Implementations usually default to the local time zone when the date string is non-standard. For consistency, we will assume that the code uses the UTC timezone.

Date.parse("Jan 1, 1970"); // 0 in all implementations

Date.parse("Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00"); // 0 in all implementations

Date.parse("1970,1,1"); // 0 in Chrome and Firefox, NaN in Safari

Date.parse("02 01 1970");
// 2678400000 in Chrome and Firefox (Sun Feb 01 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0000);
// NaN in Safari

// With explicit timezone
Date.parse("Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0300");
// -10800000 in all implementations in all timezones

// Single number
Date.parse("0");
// 946684800000 in Chrome (Sat Jan 01 2000 00:00:00 GMT+0000);
// NaN in Firefox;
// -62167219200000 in Safari (Sat Jan 01 0000 00:00:00 GMT+0000)

// Two-digit number that may be a month
Date.parse("28"); // NaN in all implementations

// Two-digit year
Date.parse("70/01/01"); // 0 in all implementations

// Out-of-bounds date components
Date.parse("2014-25-23"); // NaN in all implementations
Date.parse("Mar 32, 2014"); // NaN in all implementations
Date.parse("2014/25/23"); // NaN in all implementations

Date.parse("2014-02-30");
// NaN in Safari and Firefox;
// 1393718400000 in Chrome (Sun Mar 02 2014 00:00:00 GMT+0000)
Date.parse("02/30/2014"); // 1393718400000 in all implementations

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-date.parse

Browser compatibility

	Desktop						Mobile						Server
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	Deno	Node.js
`parse`	1	12	1	3	1	18	4	10.1	1	1.0	4.4	1.0	0.10.0
`iso_8601`	6	12	4	6	5.1	18	4	10.1	5	1.0	≤37	1.0	0.12.0