Working with dates in JavaScript requires understanding its quirks. Here's a comprehensive guide.
Creating Dates
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Getting Date Components
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Setting Date Components
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Date Formatting
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Custom Formatting
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Date Arithmetic
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Date Comparison
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Working with Time Zones
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Common Utilities
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Libraries
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Best Practices
Parsing:
✓ Use ISO 8601 format for parsing
✓ Be explicit about timezones
✓ Validate parsed dates
✓ Handle invalid dates gracefully
Storage:
✓ Store as ISO 8601 strings or timestamps
✓ Store in UTC
✓ Convert to local time for display
✓ Use consistent formats
Display:
✓ Use Intl.DateTimeFormat for localization
✓ Consider user's timezone
✓ Use relative time when appropriate
✓ Be consistent across the app
Avoid:
✗ Parsing ambiguous date strings
✗ Mutating Date objects
✗ Ignoring timezones
✗ Manual string formatting for locales
Conclusion
JavaScript's Date handling has quirks like 0-indexed months and timezone complexities. Use ISO 8601 format for parsing, Intl APIs for formatting, and consider libraries like date-fns for complex operations. Always be explicit about timezones and store dates in UTC.