How do I see if dates came before or after with javascript?

user_8644158 0
Viewed 586

I'm given a date const date1 = "2020-08-08"

I want to check whether this date is before today or after today

const date1 = "2020-08-08"
const today = new Date()
if(date1 > new Date) {
    console.log("date1 is the future")
} else {
    console.log("date1 is the past")
}

The above code doesn't work but I am trying to do something like that. Is there a way?

date javascript
5 Answers

Try using getTime()

var date1 = new Date(2020 - 08 - 08);
var today = new Date();  
if (date1.getTime() > today.getTime()) {
  // Date 1 is the Future
} else {
  // Today is the Future
}

or you can compare directly like date1 > today

If you have date as string , then parse using ,

var date1 = Date.parse("2020-08-08");
user_74851350

You can extract today and compare:

var now = new Date();
var month = (now.getMonth() + 1);               
var day = now.getDate();
if (month < 10) 
    month = "0" + month;
if (day < 10) 
    day = "0" + day;
var year = now.getFullYear();
var today = year + '-' + month + '-' + day;

You can compare year, month and day separately and see.

user_120730280

Here's a working snippet to get you started:

let date1 = Date.parse("2020-08-08");
let today = new Date();

if (date1 < today) {
  console.log("Date1 is in the past");
} else {
  console.log("Date1 is in the future");
}

user_28051210
user_11284410

In if (date1 > new Date) the expression new Date returns a string, so you're effectively comparing '2020-08-08' > new Date().toString(). Since both operands are strings, they will be compared lexically and since the lefthand string starts with a number and the righthand string will always start with a letter, the result will always be false.

What you probably mean to do is:

const date1 = "2020-08-08";
const today = new Date();
if (date1 > today) {
    console.log("date1 is the future");
}

However, '2020-08-08' will be parsed as UTC, so on 8 August the test may return true or false depending on the host system offset setting and the time that the code is executed. See Why does Date.parse give incorrect results?

user_2571820
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