How to parse a date from a string

Short answer

The standard ISO format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm is understood by new Date() directly:

const date = new Date('2025-03-15T14:30');
 
console.log(date.getFullYear(), date.getMonth() + 1, date.getDate(), date.getHours());

Output:

2025 3 15 14

day.month.year

Other formats are better split by hand: their parsing differs between browsers:

const [day, month, year] = '25.12.2025'.split('.').map(Number);
const date = new Date(year, month - 1, day);
 
console.log(date.toDateString());

Output:

Thu Dec 25 2025

Checking the result

An unreadable string gives an invalid date. Its getTime() returns NaN:

const date = new Date('not a date');
 
console.log(Number.isNaN(date.getTime()));
console.log(String(date));

Output:

true
Invalid Date

Common mistake

A date-only string like 2025-03-15 is read as midnight in UTC, not local time. West of Greenwich it becomes the previous day. Add the time or build the date from numbers:

const utc = new Date('2025-03-15');
const local = new Date('2025-03-15T00:00');
 
console.log(utc.toISOString());
console.log(local.getDate());

Output:

2025-03-15T00:00:00.000Z
15

Thanks for reading!

Short answer

day.month.year

Checking the result

Common mistake

Functions used in this recipe

Thanks for reading!