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Asked: 2026-06-07T00:21:38+00:00

The javascript Date.toLocaleDateString() is silly. What I need is a function that allows me

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The javascript Date.toLocaleDateString() is silly.

What I need is a function that allows me to simplify the date according to preference.

It would be nice if there were a function which would read the browser date formats (plural) and take an optional parameter telling it which format to use.

I’ll explain:
“MM/DD/YYYY” works great for the US and anyone willing to put up with them/us.
“DD/MM/YYYY” is the most common format for people interested in a short simple date format.
“Weekday, Month DayOfMonth, Year” is only useful if you want a super-long and language-dependent output.

I could use this:

var s = "/";
if(locale=='us')
  var dateString = Date.getDate()+s+Date.getDay()+s+Date.getFullYear();
else
  var dateString = Date.getDay()+s+Date.getDate()+s+Date.getFullYear();

But I’m looking for a more elegant solution that will allow me to store a date mask or format string so people can change the way their dates are displayed according to their own tastes. (Even the super-long language-dependent one if they like it enough.)

Should I re-prototype the Date.toString() method to interpret parameters? Is there a better way?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I ran into a very powerful library that takes care of dates and generic formatting:
    http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/date-time-format
    (Wrong link)
    http://jawe.net/wiki/dev/jsdateformat/home

    Is pretty powerful and configurable. (It supports java-style formats that I need, such as the “MEDIUM” date format)

    Moment appears to be useful and feature-full (just no Medium format): https://github.com/timrwood/moment

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