Working with dates and times in JavaScript can seem a bit tricky at first. Luckily, JavaScript provides a powerful built-in object called Date, which comes with lots of methods to get and set date and time values.
In this post, we’ll go over the most useful Date methods in a simple and easy-to-understand way. We'll divide them into three parts:
- Get Methods – to retrieve date and time information
- Set Methods – to update or change the date and time
- Conversion Methods – to convert date objects to strings
Get Methods – Read Date and Time
| Method | What It Does |
|---|---|
| getDate() | Gets the day of the month (1–31). |
| getDay() | Gets the day of the week (0–6, where 0 = Sunday). |
| getFullYear() | Gets the full year (like 2025). |
| getHours() | Gets the hour (0–23). |
| getMilliseconds() | Gets the milliseconds (0–999). |
| getMinutes() | Gets the minutes (0–59). |
| getMonth() | Gets the month (0–11, where 0 = January). |
| getSeconds() | Gets the seconds (0–59). |
| getTime() | Gets milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970. |
| getTimezoneOffset() | Gets the time zone difference from UTC in minutes. |
| getUTCDate() | Gets the day of the month using UTC. |
| getUTCDay() | Gets the day of the week using UTC. |
| getUTCFullYear() | Gets the year using UTC. |
| getUTCHours() | Gets the hour using UTC. |
| getUTCMilliseconds() | Gets the milliseconds using UTC. |
| getUTCMinutes() | Gets the minutes using UTC. |
| getUTCMonth() | Gets the month using UTC. |
| getUTCSeconds() | Gets the seconds using UTC. |
| getYear() | Deprecated – returns year minus 1900. |
Set Methods – Update the Date
| Method | What It Does |
|---|---|
| setDate() | Sets the day of the month. |
| setFullYear() | Sets the full year, optionally month and date. |
| setHours() | Sets the hour, optionally minutes/seconds/milliseconds. |
| setMilliseconds() | Sets the milliseconds. |
| setMinutes() | Sets the minutes, optionally seconds and milliseconds. |
| setMonth() | Sets the month, optionally the day. |
| setSeconds() | Sets the seconds, optionally the milliseconds. |
| setTime() | Sets the time in milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970. |
| setUTCDate() | Sets the day using UTC. |
| setUTCFullYear() | Sets the year using UTC. |
| setUTCHours() | Sets the hour using UTC. |
| setUTCMilliseconds() | Sets the milliseconds using UTC. |
| setUTCMinutes() | Sets the minutes using UTC. |
| setUTCMonth() | Sets the month using UTC. |
| setUTCSeconds() | Sets the seconds using UTC. |
| setYear() | Deprecated – avoid using this method. |
Convert Date to String
| Method | What It Does |
|---|---|
| toDateString() | Shows only the date part (e.g., "Fri May 17 2025"). |
| toGMTString() | Returns a date string in GMT format. |
| toLocaleDateString() | Shows the date in your local format. |
| toLocaleFormat() | Returns a date string in default format. |
| toLocaleString() | Shows the full date and time in local format. |
| toLocaleTimeString() | Shows only the time in your local format. |
| toString() | Converts the date to a readable string. |
| toTimeString() | Shows only the time part. |
| toUTCString() | Shows the date and time in UTC format. |
| valueOf() | Returns the primitive numeric value (same as getTime()). |
Note:
Always remember: Months are zero-based in JavaScript. That means January is 0, February is 1, and so on.
Also, avoid using deprecated methods like getYear() and setYear(). Use getFullYear() and setFullYear() instead.