JavaScript parse() Method

Complete Date Object Reference

Definition and Usage

The parse() method takes a date string and returns the number of milliseconds since midnight of January 1, 1970.

Syntax

Date.parse(datestring)

Example

In this example we will get how many milliseconds there are from 1970/01/01 to 2005/07/08:

<script type="text/javascript">

var d = Date.parse("Jul 8, 2005");
document.write(d);

</script>

The output of the code above will be:

1120773600000

Example 2

Now we will convert the output from the example above into years:

<script type="text/javascript">

var minutes = 1000 * 60;
var hours = minutes * 60;
var days = hours * 24;
var years = days * 365;
var t = Date.parse("Jul 8, 2005");
var y = t/years;
document.write("It's been: " + y + " years from 1970/01/01");
document.write(" to 2005/07/08!");

</script>

The output of the code above will be:

It's been: 35.53949771689498 years from 1970/01/01 to 2005/07/08!

Try-It-Yourself Demos

parse()
Use parse() to print the milliseconds from 1970/01/01 to a specified date.

Complete Date Object Reference

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