How do I output an ISO 8601 formatted string in JavaScript?

I have a Date object. How do I render the title portion of the following snippet?

<abbr title="2010-04-02T14:12:07">A couple days ago</abbr>

I have the "relative time in words" portion from another library.

I've tried the following:

function isoDate(msSinceEpoch) {

   var d = new Date(msSinceEpoch);
   return d.getUTCFullYear() + '-' + (d.getUTCMonth() + 1) + '-' + d.getUTCDate() + 'T' +
          d.getUTCHours() + ':' + d.getUTCMinutes() + ':' + d.getUTCSeconds();

}

But that gives me:

"2010-4-2T3:19"

There is already a function called toISOString():

var date = new Date();
date.toISOString(); //"2011-12-19T15:28:46.493Z"

If, somehow, you're on a browser that doesn't support it, I've got you covered:

if (!Date.prototype.toISOString) {
  (function() {

    function pad(number) {
      var r = String(number);
      if (r.length === 1) {
        r = '0' + r;
      }
      return r;
    }

    Date.prototype.toISOString = function() {
      return this.getUTCFullYear() +
        '-' + pad(this.getUTCMonth() + 1) +
        '-' + pad(this.getUTCDate()) +
        'T' + pad(this.getUTCHours()) +
        ':' + pad(this.getUTCMinutes()) +
        ':' + pad(this.getUTCSeconds()) +
        '.' + String((this.getUTCMilliseconds() / 1000).toFixed(3)).slice(2, 5) +
        'Z';
    };

  }());
}

console.log(new Date().toISOString())

Note: This answer is still getting upvotes as of 2022-03. The moment.js library is deprecated. These are the two main alternatives: Luxon and Day.js, others are mentioned in the deprecation link.

Luxon

> Luxon can be thought of as the evolution of Moment. It is authored by > Isaac Cambron, a long-time contributor to Moment. Please read Why does > Luxon exist? and the For Moment users pages in the Luxon > documentation. > > Locales: Intl provided Time Zones: Intl provided

Day.js

> Day.js is designed to be a minimalist replacement for Moment.js, using > a similar API. It is not a drop-in replacement, but if you are used to > using Moment's API and want to get moving quickly, consider using > Day.js. > > Locales: Custom data files that can be individually imported Time > Zones: Intl provided, via a plugin

I use Day.js because of the size difference, but Luxon is easier to deal with.

---

Almost every to-ISO method on the web drops the timezone information by applying a convert to "Z"ulu time (UTC) before outputting the string. Browser's native .toISOString() also drops timezone information.

This discards valuable information, as the server, or recipient, can always convert a full ISO date to Zulu time or whichever timezone it requires, while still getting the timezone information of the sender.

The best solution I've come across is to use the Moment.js javascript library and use the following code:

To get the current ISO time with timezone information and milliseconds

now = moment().format("YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.SSSZZ")
// "2013-03-08T20:11:11.234+0100"

now = moment().utc().format("YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.SSSZZ")
// "2013-03-08T19:11:11.234+0000"

now = moment().utc().format("YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss") + "Z"
// "2013-03-08T19:11:11Z" <- better use the native .toISOString() 

To get the ISO time of a native JavaScript Date object with timezone information but without milliseconds

var current_time = Date.now();
moment(current_time).format("YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZZ")

This can be combined with Date.js to get functions like Date.today() whose result can then be passed to moment.

A date string formatted like this is JSON compilant, and lends itself well to get stored into a database. Python and C# seem to like it.

See the last example on page https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference:Global_Objects:Date:

/* Use a function for the exact format desired... */
function ISODateString(d) {
    function pad(n) {return n<10 ? '0'+n : n}
    return d.getUTCFullYear()+'-'
         + pad(d.getUTCMonth()+1)+'-'
         + pad(d.getUTCDate())+'T'
         + pad(d.getUTCHours())+':'
         + pad(d.getUTCMinutes())+':'
         + pad(d.getUTCSeconds())+'Z'
}

var d = new Date();
console.log(ISODateString(d)); // Prints something like 2009-09-28T19:03:12Z

The question asked was ISO format with reduced precision. Voila:

 new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 19) + 'Z'
 // '2014-10-23T13:18:06Z'

Assuming the trailing Z is wanted, otherwise just omit.

Shortest, but not supported by Internet Explorer 8 and earlier:

new Date().toJSON()

If you don't need to support IE7, the following is a great, concise hack:

console.log(
  JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(new Date()))
)

I typically don't want to display a UTC date since customers don't like doing the conversion in their head. To display a local ISO date, I use the function:

function toLocalIsoString(date, includeSeconds) {
	function pad(n) { return n < 10 ? '0' + n : n }
	var localIsoString = date.getFullYear() + '-'
		+ pad(date.getMonth() + 1) + '-'
		+ pad(date.getDate()) + 'T'
		+ pad(date.getHours()) + ':'
		+ pad(date.getMinutes()) + ':'
		+ pad(date.getSeconds());
	if(date.getTimezoneOffset() == 0) localIsoString += 'Z';
	return localIsoString;
};

The function above omits time zone offset information (except if local time happens to be UTC), so I use the function below to show the local offset in a single location. You can also append its output to results from the above function if you wish to show the offset in each and every time:

function getOffsetFromUTC() {
	var offset = new Date().getTimezoneOffset();
	return ((offset < 0 ? '+' : '-')
		+ pad(Math.abs(offset / 60), 2)
        + ':'
		+ pad(Math.abs(offset % 60), 2))
};

toLocalIsoString uses pad. If needed, it works like nearly any pad function, but for the sake of completeness this is what I use:

// Pad a number to length using padChar
function pad(number, length, padChar) {
	if (typeof length === 'undefined') length = 2;
	if (typeof padChar === 'undefined') padChar = '0';
	var str = "" + number;
	while (str.length < length) {
		str = padChar + str;
	}
	return str;
}

The problem with toISOString is that it gives datetime only as "Z".

ISO-8601 also defines datetime with timezone difference in hours and minutes, in the forms like 2016-07-16T19:20:30+5:30 (when timezone is ahead UTC) and 2016-07-16T19:20:30-01:00 (when timezone is behind UTC).

I don't think it is a good idea to use another plugin, moment.js for such a small task, especially when you can get it with a few lines of code.

Once you have the timezone offset in hours and minutes, you can append to a datetime string.

I wrote a blog post on it : http://usefulangle.com/post/30/javascript-get-date-time-with-offset-hours-minutes

var timezone_offset_min = new Date().getTimezoneOffset(),
  offset_hrs = parseInt(Math.abs(timezone_offset_min / 60)),
  offset_min = Math.abs(timezone_offset_min % 60),
  timezone_standard;

if (offset_hrs < 10)
  offset_hrs = '0' + offset_hrs;

if (offset_min > 10)
  offset_min = '0' + offset_min;

// getTimezoneOffset returns an offset which is positive if the local timezone is behind UTC and vice-versa.
// So add an opposite sign to the offset
// If offset is 0, it means timezone is UTC
if (timezone_offset_min < 0)
  timezone_standard = '+' + offset_hrs + ':' + offset_min;
else if (timezone_offset_min > 0)
  timezone_standard = '-' + offset_hrs + ':' + offset_min;
else if (timezone_offset_min == 0)
  timezone_standard = 'Z';

// Timezone difference in hours and minutes
// String such as +5:30 or -6:00 or Z
console.log(timezone_standard);

There is a '+' missing after the 'T'

isoDate: function(msSinceEpoch) {
  var d = new Date(msSinceEpoch);
  return d.getUTCFullYear() + '-' + (d.getUTCMonth() + 1) + '-' + d.getUTCDate() + 'T'
         + d.getUTCHours() + ':' + d.getUTCMinutes() + ':' + d.getUTCSeconds();
}

should do it.

For the leading zeros you could use this from here:

function PadDigits(n, totalDigits) 
{ 
    n = n.toString(); 
    var pd = ''; 
    if (totalDigits > n.length) 
    { 
        for (i=0; i < (totalDigits-n.length); i++) 
        { 
            pd += '0'; 
        } 
    } 
    return pd + n.toString(); 
} 

Using it like this:

PadDigits(d.getUTCHours(),2)

function timeStr(d) { 
  return ''+
    d.getFullYear()+
    ('0'+(d.getMonth()+1)).slice(-2)+
    ('0'+d.getDate()).slice(-2)+
    ('0'+d.getHours()).slice(-2)+
    ('0'+d.getMinutes()).slice(-2)+
    ('0'+d.getSeconds()).slice(-2);
}

I was able to get below output with very less code.

var ps = new Date('2010-04-02T14:12:07')  ;
ps = ps.toDateString() + " " + ps.getHours() + ":"+ ps.getMinutes() + " hrs";

Output:

Fri Apr 02 2010 19:42 hrs

I would just use this small extension to Date - http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/date-time-format

var date = new Date(msSinceEpoch);
date.format("isoDateTime"); // 2007-06-09T17:46:21

function getdatetime() {
    d = new Date();
    return (1e3-~d.getUTCMonth()*10+d.toUTCString()+1e3+d/1)
        .replace(/1(..)..*?(\d+)\D+(\d+).(\S+).*(...)/,'$3-$1-$2T$4.$5Z')
        .replace(/-(\d)T/,'-0$1T');
}

I found the basics on Stack Overflow somewhere (I believe it was part of some other Stack Exchange code golfing), and I improved it so it works on Internet Explorer 10 or earlier as well. It's ugly, but it gets the job done.

To extend Sean's great and concise answer with some sugar and modern syntax:

// date.js

const getMonthName = (num) => {
  const months = ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', 'Jul', 'Aug', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec'];
  return months[num];
};

const formatDate = (d) => {
  const date = new Date(d);
  const year = date.getFullYear();
  const month = getMonthName(date.getMonth());
  const day = ('0' + date.getDate()).slice(-2);
  const hour = ('0' + date.getHours()).slice(-2);
  const minutes = ('0' + date.getMinutes()).slice(-2);

  return `${year} ${month} ${day}, ${hour}:${minutes}`;
};

module.exports = formatDate;

Then eg.

import formatDate = require('./date');

const myDate = "2018-07-24T13:44:46.493Z"; // Actual value from wherever, eg. MongoDB date
console.log(formatDate(myDate)); // 2018 Jul 24, 13:44