Firefox new Date() from string constructs time in local time zone

Question

I am trying to create a date object from a string. I get date in ISO format except milliseconds part like "2012-01-30T16:23:12"

Results differ when I run following code in IE, Chrome and Firefox (Link to Fiddle)

currentDate = "2012-01-30T16:23:12";
var date = new Date(currentDate);
alert(date);

IE and Chrome considers the string as UTC but firefox considers in local time zone.

Is there any generic way to get around it except for checking user agent everywhere?

possible duplicate of [Annoying javascript timezone adjustment issue](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7629286/annoying-javascript-timezone-adjustment-issue) — Tomasz Nurkiewicz, Jan 30 '12 at 11:18

Rob Agar · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-30T12:09:38.677

16

You could try appending the zero timezone offset +00:00 for UTC:

currentDate = "2012-01-30T16:23:12+00:00";

Does that help? (Sorry I can't test it without actually changing my timezone.)

edited Jan 30 '12 at 12:09

answered Jan 30 '12 at 11:21

Rob Agar

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Thanks. It works with "+00:00".That way all three browsers yield same epoch value. http://jsfiddle.net/harsha/9ybtN/2/ – harsha Jan 30 '12 at 12:06
Sorry, yes it needs the colon – Rob Agar Jan 30 '12 at 12:09

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 30 '12 at 11:15

3

Hm, possible workaround is to parse string and use methods.

setUTCDate()    
setUTCFullYear()
setUTCHours()

Probably, there is better solution

answered Jan 30 '12 at 11:15

Anton

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+1, this is not a workaround but the *correct way*, see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7629286 – Tomasz Nurkiewicz Jan 30 '12 at 11:18

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 30 '12 at 11:44

There is no guarantee that the input will be correctly parsed if in the present format. The Date.parse() routine is only required to parse strings in a particular format—parsing other formats is implementation-dependent. If you dare to rely on implementations satisfying the requirement, add data to conform to the specific format:

new Date(currentDate + '.000Z')

Alternatively, use a library that can parse data in the current format, e.g. jQuery or Globalize.js.

Similar considerations apply to writing dates. There is no guarantee of the output format if you use Date.toString(), either explicitly or as in alert(date). Even within a single computer, different browsers will use different localized formats.

Firefox new Date() from string constructs time in local time zone

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