JavaScript strtotime

Convert string representation of date and time to a timestamp

function strtotime (str, now) {
    // Convert string representation of date and time to a timestamp  
    // 
    // version: 1008.1718
    // discuss at: http://phpjs.org/functions/strtotime    // +   original by: Caio Ariede (http://caioariede.com)
    // +   improved by: Kevin van Zonneveld (http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net)
    // +      input by: David
    // +   improved by: Caio Ariede (http://caioariede.com)
    // +   improved by: Brett Zamir (http://brett-zamir.me)    // +   bugfixed by: Wagner B. Soares
    // +   bugfixed by: Artur Tchernychev
    // %        note 1: Examples all have a fixed timestamp to prevent tests to fail because of variable time(zones)
    // *     example 1: strtotime('+1 day', 1129633200);
    // *     returns 1: 1129719600    // *     example 2: strtotime('+1 week 2 days 4 hours 2 seconds', 1129633200);
    // *     returns 2: 1130425202
    // *     example 3: strtotime('last month', 1129633200);
    // *     returns 3: 1127041200
    // *     example 4: strtotime('2009-05-04 08:30:00');    // *     returns 4: 1241418600
 
    var i, match, s, strTmp = '', parse = '';
 
    strTmp = str;    strTmp = strTmp.replace(/\s{2,}|^\s|\s$/g, ' '); // unecessary spaces
    strTmp = strTmp.replace(/[\t\r\n]/g, ''); // unecessary chars
 
    if (strTmp == 'now') {
        return (new Date()).getTime()/1000; // Return seconds, not milli-seconds    } else if (!isNaN(parse = Date.parse(strTmp))) {
        return (parse/1000);
    } else if (now) {
        now = new Date(now*1000); // Accept PHP-style seconds
    } else {        now = new Date();
    }
 
    strTmp = strTmp.toLowerCase();
     var __is =
    {
        day:
        {
            'sun': 0,            'mon': 1,
            'tue': 2,
            'wed': 3,
            'thu': 4,
            'fri': 5,            'sat': 6
        },
        mon:
        {
            'jan': 0,            'feb': 1,
            'mar': 2,
            'apr': 3,
            'may': 4,
            'jun': 5,            'jul': 6,
            'aug': 7,
            'sep': 8,
            'oct': 9,
            'nov': 10,            'dec': 11
        }
    };
 
    var process = function (m) {        var ago = (m[2] && m[2] == 'ago');
        var num = (num = m[0] == 'last' ? -1 : 1) * (ago ? -1 : 1);
 
        switch (m[0]) {
            case 'last':            case 'next':
                switch (m[1].substring(0, 3)) {
                    case 'yea':
                        now.setFullYear(now.getFullYear() + num);
                        break;                    case 'mon':
                        now.setMonth(now.getMonth() + num);
                        break;
                    case 'wee':
                        now.setDate(now.getDate() + (num * 7));                        break;
                    case 'day':
                        now.setDate(now.getDate() + num);
                        break;
                    case 'hou':                        now.setHours(now.getHours() + num);
                        break;
                    case 'min':
                        now.setMinutes(now.getMinutes() + num);
                        break;                    case 'sec':
                        now.setSeconds(now.getSeconds() + num);
                        break;
                    default:
                        var day;                        if (typeof (day = __is.day[m[1].substring(0, 3)]) != 'undefined') {
                            var diff = day - now.getDay();
                            if (diff == 0) {
                                diff = 7 * num;
                            } else if (diff > 0) {                                if (m[0] == 'last') {diff -= 7;}
                            } else {
                                if (m[0] == 'next') {diff += 7;}
                            }
                            now.setDate(now.getDate() + diff);                        }
                }
                break;
 
            default:                if (/\d+/.test(m[0])) {
                    num *= parseInt(m[0], 10);
 
                    switch (m[1].substring(0, 3)) {
                        case 'yea':                            now.setFullYear(now.getFullYear() + num);
                            break;
                        case 'mon':
                            now.setMonth(now.getMonth() + num);
                            break;                        case 'wee':
                            now.setDate(now.getDate() + (num * 7));
                            break;
                        case 'day':
                            now.setDate(now.getDate() + num);                            break;
                        case 'hou':
                            now.setHours(now.getHours() + num);
                            break;
                        case 'min':                            now.setMinutes(now.getMinutes() + num);
                            break;
                        case 'sec':
                            now.setSeconds(now.getSeconds() + num);
                            break;                    }
                } else {
                    return false;
                }
                break;        }
        return true;
    };
 
    match = strTmp.match(/^(\d{2,4}-\d{2}-\d{2})(?:\s(\d{1,2}:\d{2}(:\d{2})?)?(?:\.(\d+))?)?$/);    if (match != null) {
        if (!match[2]) {
            match[2] = '00:00:00';
        } else if (!match[3]) {
            match[2] += ':00';        }
 
        s = match[1].split(/-/g);
 
        for (i in __is.mon) {            if (__is.mon[i] == s[1] - 1) {
                s[1] = i;
            }
        }
        s[0] = parseInt(s[0], 10); 
        s[0] = (s[0] >= 0 && s[0] <= 69) ? '20'+(s[0] < 10 ? '0'+s[0] : s[0]+'') : (s[0] >= 70 && s[0] <= 99) ? '19'+s[0] : s[0]+'';
        return parseInt(this.strtotime(s[2] + ' ' + s[1] + ' ' + s[0] + ' ' + match[2])+(match[4] ? match[4]/1000 : ''), 10);
    }
     var regex = '([+-]?\\d+\\s'+
        '(years?|months?|weeks?|days?|hours?|min|minutes?|sec|seconds?'+
        '|sun\\.?|sunday|mon\\.?|monday|tue\\.?|tuesday|wed\\.?|wednesday'+
        '|thu\\.?|thursday|fri\\.?|friday|sat\\.?|saturday)'+
        '|(last|next)\\s'+        '(years?|months?|weeks?|days?|hours?|min|minutes?|sec|seconds?'+
        '|sun\\.?|sunday|mon\\.?|monday|tue\\.?|tuesday|wed\\.?|wednesday'+
        '|thu\\.?|thursday|fri\\.?|friday|sat\\.?|saturday))'+
        '(\\sago)?';
     match = strTmp.match(new RegExp(regex, 'gi')); // Brett: seems should be case insensitive per docs, so added 'i'
    if (match == null) {
        return false;
    }
     for (i = 0; i < match.length; i++) {
        if (!process(match[i].split(' '))) {
            return false;
        }
    } 
    return (now.getTime()/1000);
}

external links: original PHP docs | raw js source

Examples

» Example 1

Running

1	strtotime('+1 day', 1129633200);

Should return

1	1129719600

» Example 2

Running

1	strtotime('+1 week 2 days 4 hours 2 seconds', 1129633200);

Should return

1	1130425202

Dependencies

No dependencies, you can use this function standalone.

Open syntax issues

php.js uses JsLint to help us keep our code consistent and prevent some common bugs.

Eventually we want all code to pass or at least take into consideration most fixes suggested by JsLint, following this JsLint configuration we’ve decided on.

Authors

Thanks to the following developers, you get to have strtotime goodness in JavaScript.

Caio Ariede ( original improved )
Kevin van Zonneveld ( improved )
Brett Zamir ( improved )
David ( input )
Wagner B. Soares ( bugfixed )
Artur Tchernychev ( bugfixed )

Comments

Add Comment

Name

Website

Title

Content

Use:

[CODE]
your_stuff('here');
[/CODE]

for proper code formatting
By submitting code here you are allowing us to use it in php.js hence dual licensing it under the MIT and GPL licenses

Brett Zamir
Aug 29th

@Brad: I think it is most likely a timezone issue. Our date function currently does not support the setting of a default timezone (as PHP also allows and recommends), so there may be some problem in setting date values according to the browser locale and then using such values across our functions.

You can see "raw js source", note #2, on the date function for the latest notes about how this could be implemented if you are able to make the changes to our code yourself (sorry, I have no time at the moment). Anyone else feel free to help out if you can.

Brad
Aug 28th

When I run

date("F j, Y", strtotime("2010-08-03"));

I get "August 2, 2010"

Kevin van Zonneveld
Aug 17th

test

Brett Zamir
Aug 16th

@Jack: The syntax highlighting code here is buggy, so when you copy-paste it directly, some lines will be commented out. Go to "raw js source" to make sure you have a good copy...It is working with the right code...

Jack
Aug 16th

Example 4 returns NaN. Seems to be broken!

Mike
Apr 2nd

hmm - couple of bugs in strtotime...
1) strtotime('last Monday',now) returns last month not last monday - first 3 letters of month is the same as monday!
work around :

strtotime('last Tuesday, -1 day',now);  // = last monday

2) strtotime('d-m-Y',now) isn't handled correctly (only 'Y-m-d' is) (as mentioned in other comments)
3) in 2 above, the d and m have to be zero padded to work I.E. strtotime('2010-3-1') has to be replaced with ('2010-03-01')
work around :



//examples from variable passed into function perhaps

day = 2;

month = 5;

year = 2010;



if (day < 10) dayzeropad = '0'; else dayzeropad = '';

if (month < 10) monthzeropad = '0'; else monthzeropad = '';

var tstring = year + '-' + monthzeropad + month + '-' + dayzeropad + day;

unixtime = strtotime(tstring);

bugs work-aroundable... cool stuff - thanks.

Zahlii
Mar 10th

Is it possible to add support for german-like Dates ?

in PHP (5.3+), strototime('22.01.2010'); works as expected, but not with this js strtotime-method.

Kevin van Zonneveld
14 Dec '09

@ rav3n: You might be better off parsing your string first before feeding it to strtotime cause I believe PHP wouldn't support your format either.

@ iwosz: Sorry no IE7 on my machine. So unless someone else can get to the bottom of this I may have to see if I can find some WinXP virtual image with IE7 installed or sth like that

iwosz
9 Dec '09

Under IE 7 strtotime('2009-12-09 12:45:16') returns NaN, can you explain that? some solutions? thx.

rav3n
1 Dec '09

this function is great. however i need to format the string not as %Y-%m-%d but as %d-%m-%Y.

i understand that it's around line 150-170

Kevin van Zonneveld
9 Oct '09

@ Daniel Janesch & Theriault: Thanks for pointing out these problems. I've contacted the original author by mail.

Daniel Janesch
8 Oct '09

First of all: Great work :-)
I have figured out that the following is not working correctly:

$d = new Date(2012, 11, 1, 7, 0, 0);
$r = strtotime('3 Wednesday', $d.getTime()/1000); // 2012-11-01 07:00:00

The correct result with php is 2012-11-21 00:00:00 but with phpjs I get 1351753200 wich is 2012-11-01 07:00:00.
Any clues?

Theriault
6 Oct '09

PHP seems to apply the string as a whole and not from left-to-right as in this function. In the following PHP example, both $a and $b will be the same date. If PHP applied them from left-to-right, $b would be 2012-03-01, not 2012-02-29.

$d = strtotime('2011-02-22');
$a = strtotime('+1 year, +7 days', $d); // 2012-02-29
$b= strtotime('+7 days, +1 year', $d); // 2012-02-29

This function applies the string from left-to-right, which seems more logical, but is incorrect.

Theriault
4 Oct '09

I noticed that none of the following work with this function:

today (same as 'now' but resets to 12:00:00AM), tomorrow (same as '+1 day' but also resets to 12), yesterday (same as '-1 day' but also resets to 12).

next week, last week (Currently returns date plus/minus seven days, should return next monday if I remember correctly on how it works in PHP).

last sunday of next month (returns next month, but not last sun/sat/mon/day... of that month)

YYYY-Wnn-d (Basically, sets year to YYYY, week number to nn, and then day of that week to d (0-6). Day of week may be omitted and also overflow, such as 7 for next week.)

00:00:00 (Changes time to 12:00:00 AM or anything else entered here.)

Does anyone else see anything missing from this function? I may recode it. I would like to see it complete -- it is a great function.

Brett Zamir
17 Aug '09

@majak: Yeah, thanks, it seemed that way from the code snippet (figured out what was the problem by finding that code by Google). Be careful using Prototype or other libraries that overload the prototype objects--it causes problems like these...

majak
17 Aug '09

@Brett Zamir: Thank you for your help. Your fix works.
Just for reference, I'm using Prototype framework.

Brett Zamir
12 Aug '09

@majak, it appears you are using a library which overloads the Object prototype with its own functions which this PHP.JS function then iterates... You can solve this problem by adding right after line 184 (see above) the following line (and then the closing brace after line 187):

if (match.hasOwnProperty(i)) {

If you need to work with older browsers like IE 5, you can add this instead:

if (typeof match[i] !== 'function') {

See http://yuiblog.com/blog/2006/09/26/for-in-intrigue/ for a fuller explanation of why.

All of our for...in statements should really use such a test, though since it is cumbersome, and libraries should, imo, really not be altering the prototype in the first place, I think it is a toss-up as to whether we should add these checks ourselves. What do you think, Kevin? Perhaps we should in order to be most compatible...

majak
12 Aug '09

I'm using the latest (2.85) minified and namespaced version of this function. This snippet:

$P.strtotime('+1 day');

produces TypeError. I have tested it in both FF and Chrome, here are their error messages:

FF:
TypeError: match[i].split is not a function

Chrome:
TypeError: Object function (inline) {
return (inline !== false ? this : this.toArray())._reverse();
} has no method 'split'

I suppose it happens on every relative date string input, like "-3 months".

Brett Zamir
27 Jun '09

The function expects a string--you are mostly passing something to the function which is not a string.

Andrew
27 Jun '09

Getting an error --

Error: strTmp.replace is not a function

The debugger is pointing to this line --

strTmp = strTmp.replace(/\s{2,}|^\s|\s$/g, ' '); // unecessary spaces

Kevin van Zonneveld
22 Mar '09

@ Jeppe: Well that's an issue that should actually have been fixed already. Are you sure you're running the latest version? Thanks!

Jeppe
16 Mar '09

strtotime("last month"), "-1 month", "next month", etc. doesn't work. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Kevin van Zonneveld
25 Feb '09

@ Dave: I've contacted the original author Caio Ariede, and he's been kind enough to fix this function up. All testcases work now!

Contribute a New function