Best 5+ top JavaScript date libraries.

Sometimes it might be difficult to work with dates and time formats in JavaScript. User-friendly APIs and handy utilities are provided by JavaScript date libraries, which reduce some of the problems.

We’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages of some best different JavaScript libraries for formatting dates and times in this lesson.

But how can you choose the best option when there are so many? We’ll look into the realm of JavaScript date libraries in this post to assist you to decide.

List of top JavaScript date libraries.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, it is highly recommended that you use existing JavaScript date libraries that meet your demands. Let’s take a closer look at the fundamentals of the following JavaScript libraries, as well as the distinctions between them:

• Datejs
• Moment.js
• Luxon
• Dayjs
• Date-fns
• Spacetime

DateJS

Datejs is a JavaScript Date Library that allows you to parse, format, and handle DateTime objects. It’s a more powerful wrapper for the built-in JavaScript Date Constructor function.

It is still a robust library for formatting date and time, despite the fact that the last official release was quite some time ago and has not been updated since.

The library is appropriate for individuals who are just getting started with web programming. You should be able to implement it as long as you have a basic understanding of HTML and JavaScript.

The DateJS syntax overview

Here are some examples of DateJS syntax, however you can visit complete details on GitHub to get information about the parsing, chaining, Comparison, Converting to String, and much more.

// top JavaScript date libraries

// today's date
Date.today()

// date of the next Friday                   
Date.today().next().friday() 

// date of the previous Monday
Date.today().last().monday() 

// date one week ago
new Date().last().week() 

// Returns true|false if the day-of-week matches.
Date.today().is().friday()    

....  

//

Moment.js

Moment.js is a small JavaScript date library that allows you to parse, validate, manipulate, and format dates.

It is widely used in the community, receives frequent updates, and comes with extensive instructions on how to use it.

How to install moment.js?

There are many package managers to install a moment.js. You can use npm, yarn, or any other package manager to get it.

# install moment.js

# npm
npm install moment --save

# Yarn  
yarn add moment 

# NuGet            
Install-Package Moment.js

# spm   
spm install moment --save

# meteor   
meteor add momentjs:moment  
##

The Syntax overview for moment.js

Format Dates

// best JavaScript date libraries list

// March 16th 2022, 8:08:58 pm
moment().format('MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm:ss a');

// Wednesday 
moment().format('dddd');

// Mar 16th 22                    
moment().format("MMM Do YY");
                       

Relative Time

// list of JavaScript date libraries

// 10 years ago
moment("20111031", "YYYYMMDD").fromNow();

// 10 years ago 
moment("20120620", "YYYYMMDD").fromNow();

// 20 hours ago 
moment().startOf('day').fromNow();

// in 4 hours        
moment().endOf('day').fromNow();               

Luxon

If time zones are a major concern, Luxon is the way to go. It’s never fun to deal with time zones, so it’s good to have a library that just works.

Because adding a time zone database is complicated and adds a lot of weight to the final size, most date libraries don’t have it built-in.

To get around this, Luxon exploits JavaScript’s Intl API, which is supported by the majority of browsers.

It’s the only JavaScript date library we looked at that uses its own DateTime class rather than extending Date. Working with time zones becomes less bug-prone as a result of this, in our experience.

Best Features of Luxon

• Types include DateTime, Duration, and Interval.
• API that is immutable, chainable, and unambiguous.
• Formatting and parsing for both standard and bespoke formats.
• Intl support and native time zone (no locale or tz files).

How to install Luxon?

Luxon offers a variety of builds for various JS environments. A link to the correct one, as well as for instructions on how to utilize it, is provided here.

Some Luxon Code examples

// the JavaScript date libraries

DateTime.now()
//[ DateTime 2022-03-16T20:21:18.952+05:00 ]

DateTime.local(2017, 5, 15, 17, 36)
// [ DateTime 2017-05-15T17:36:00.000+05:00 ]

DateTime.utc(2017, 5, 15, 17, 36)
//[ DateTime 2017-05-15T17:36:00.000Z ]
	
DateTime.now().toUTC()
// [ DateTime 2022-03-16T15:21:18.971Z ]
	
DateTime.utc(2017, 5, 15, 17, 36).toLocal()
// [ DateTime 2017-05-15T22:36:00.000+05:00 ]
	
DateTime.now().toObject()
//{"year":2022,"month":3,"day":16,"hour":20,"minute":21,"second":18,"millisecond":971}
	

Day.js

Day.js is a tiny and simple JavaScript module for parsing, validating, manipulating, and displaying dates and times.

It works with the majority of modern browsers and has a comparable API to Moment.js. Day.js, on the other hand, has certain additional benefits, as detailed in its documentation.

It’s immutable, it’s a small library (max 2 KB), it’s slightly faster, and locales are only included in your build if you use it.

You can get the details on GitHub or official documentation here.

Day.js API overview

// JavaScript date libraries
dayjs('2018-08-08') // parse
dayjs().format('{YYYY} MM-DDTHH:mm:ss SSS [Z] A') // display
dayjs().set('month', 3).month() // get & set
dayjs().add(1, 'year') // manipulate
dayjs().isBefore(dayjs()) // query
//

Date-fns

Date-fns is an amazing Date library that supports over 70 locales and provides a simple way to manipulate JavaScript dates in your web application. Its official Docs can be found here.

Best Features of Date-fns

• It contains over 200 functionalities for a variety of uses.
• Choose what you need from a modular system. Supports tree-shaking and works with webpack, Browserify, or Rollup.
• Native dates: Makes use of the native type that already exists. For the purpose of safety, it does not extend core objects.
• Built using pure functions and always returns a new date instance, this class is immutable and pure.
• I18n: Dozens of locations TypeScript & Flow: Supports both Flow and TypeScript Only include what you require.

Syntax overview of Date-fns

// amazing JavaScript date libraries list

import { format, compareAsc } from 'date-fns'

format(new Date(2014, 1, 11), 'MM/dd/yyyy')
// '02/11/2014'

const dates = [
  new Date(1995, 6, 2),
  new Date(1987, 1, 11),
  new Date(1989, 6, 10),
]
dates.sort(compareAsc)

//[
//   Wed Feb 11 1987 00:00:00,
//   Mon Jul 10 1989 00:00:00,
//   Sun Jul 02 1995 00:00:00
// ]