timeUtils.js

Simple time/date formatter for JavaScript which uses PHP-like syntax to easily format JavaScript date objects into legible/formatted strings. It works in the browser and Node.js and is quite small ~1.3KB (minified & gzipped).

Installation & Including the Script:

First, install the module via NPM:

npm i timeUtils¹

Then include the module...

As an import:

import { formatDate } from 'timeUtils'

As a Common JS library:

const formatDate = require('timeUtils').formatDate; 

As a script tag:

<script type="text/javascript" src="node_modules/timeUtils/dist/timeUtils.umd.js" />

Usage:

timeUtils's formatDate function expects a JavaScript Date object as its first argument and a string-based template as its second argument.

The templates should take the following form: "Lorem Ipsum '#{m}/#{d}/#{Y}'"

Where strings wrapped in #{} represent date/time variables which will be formatted for you. The table below shows all the variables currently available along with a brief description. In the above example template, we would get date in the "mm/dd/yyyy" format - for example.

Date Variables

Symbol/Token	Type	Description	Example(s)
D	day of week	Textual representation of day of week, 3 letters	Sun, Mon, ... Sat
l	day of week	Full textual representation of day of week	Sunday, Monday, ... Saturday
F	month	Full textual representation of the month	January, ... December
M	month	Abbreviated textual representation of month, 3 letters	Jan, Feb, ... Dec
n	month	Numeric representation of month without leading 0's	1, 2, ... 12
m	month	Numeric representation of the month with leading 0's	01, 02, ... 12
j	day of month	Day of month, without leading 0's	1, 2, ... 31
d	day of month	Day of the month, 2 digits, with leading zeros	01, 02, ... 31
y	year	Short numeric year, 2 digits	00, 01, ... 15
Y	year	Full numeric year, 4 digits	2000, 2001, ... 2015

Time Variables

Symbol/Token	Type	Description	Example(s)
g	hour	12-hour format of the hour, without leading 0's	1, 2, ... 12
h	hour	12-hour format of the hour, with leading 0's	01, 02, ... 12
G	hour	24-hour format of the hour, without leading 0's	0, 1, ... 23
H	hour	24-hour format of the hour, with leading 0's	00, 01, ... 23
i	minute	Minutes with leading 0's	00, 01, ... 59
s	seconds	Seconds with leading 0's	00, 01, ... 59
a	am/pm	Lowercase ante meridiem and post meridiem	'am' or 'pm'
A	am/pm	Uppercase ante meridiem and post meridiem	'AM' or 'PM'

Internationalization:

timeUtils provides an internationalize method which can be used to support multiple languages:

import { internationalize } from 'timeUtils';
const daysOfWeek = [
  [ 'Domingo', 'Dom' ],
  [ 'Lunes', 'Lun' ],
  [ 'Martes', 'Mar' ],
  [ 'Miércoles', 'Mié' ],
  [ 'Jueves', 'Jue' ],
  [ 'Viernes', 'Vie' ],
  [ 'Sábado', 'Sáb' ],
];
const monthsOfYear = [
  [ 'Enero', 'Ene' ],
  [ 'Febrero', 'Feb' ],
  [ 'Marzo', 'Mar' ],
  [ 'Abril', 'Abr' ],
  [ 'Mayo', 'May' ],
  [ 'Junio', 'Jun' ],
  [ 'Julio', 'Jul' ],
  [ 'Agosto', 'Ago' ],
  [ 'Septiembre', 'Sep' ],
  [ 'Octubre', 'Oct' ],
  [ 'Noviembre', 'Nov' ],
  [ 'Diciembre', 'Dic' ],
];
internationalize({ daysOfWeek, monthsOfYear });

Examples

var date = new Date()

Mon Apr 06 2015 21:51:08 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time)

timeUtils.formatDate(date,'Your appointment is on #{l}, #{F} #{j}, #{Y} at #{g}:#{i} #{A}.')

"Your appointment is on Monday, April 6, 2015 at 9:48 PM."

¹ add --save if you are using npm < 5.0.0