Detecting an “invalid date” Date instance in JavaScript

Question

I'd like to tell the difference between valid and invalid date objects in JS, but couldn't figure out how:

var d = new Date("foo");
console.log(d.toString()); // shows 'Invalid Date'
console.log(typeof d); // shows 'object'
console.log(d instanceof Date); // shows 'true'

Any ideas for writing an isValidDate function?

• Ash recommended Date.parse for parsing date strings, which gives an authoritative way to check if the date string is valid.
• What I would prefer, if possible, is have my API accept a Date instance and to be able to check/assert whether it's valid or not. Borgar's solution does that, but I need to test it across browsers. I also wonder whether there's a more elegant way.
• Ash made me consider not having my API accept Date instances at all, this would be easiest to validate.
• Borgar suggested testing for a Date instance, and then testing for the Date's time value. If the date is invalid, the time value is NaN. I checked with ECMA-262 and this behavior is in the standard, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

Answer 1

Here's how I would do it:

if (Object.prototype.toString.call(d) === "[object Date]") {
  // it is a date
  if (isNaN(d.getTime())) {  // d.valueOf() could also work
    // date is not valid
  } else {
    // date is valid
  }
} else {
  // not a date
}

Update [2018-05-31]: If you are not concerned with Date objects from other JS contexts (external windows, frames, or iframes), this simpler form may be preferred:

function isValidDate(d) {
  return d instanceof Date && !isNaN(d);
}

Answer 2

Instead of using new Date() you should use:

var timestamp = Date.parse('foo');

if (isNaN(timestamp) == false) {
  var d = new Date(timestamp);
}

Date.parse() returns a timestamp, an integer representing the number of milliseconds since 01/Jan/1970. It will return NaN if it cannot parse the supplied date string.

Answer 3

You can check the validity of a Date object d via

d instanceof Date && isFinite(d)

To avoid cross-frame issues, one could replace the instanceof check with

Object.prototype.toString.call(d) === '[object Date]'

A call to getTime() as in Borgar's answer is unnecessary as isNaN() and isFinite() both implicitly convert to number.

Answer 4

My solution is for simply checking whether you get a valid date object:

Implementation

Date.prototype.isValid = function () {
    // An invalid date object returns NaN for getTime() and NaN is the only
    // object not strictly equal to itself.
    return this.getTime() === this.getTime();
};  

Usage

var d = new Date("lol");

console.log(d.isValid()); // false

d = new Date("2012/09/11");

console.log(d.isValid()); // true

Answer 5

shortest answer to check valid date

if(!isNaN(date.getTime()))

Answer 6

You can simply use moment.js

Here is an example:

var m = moment('2015-11-32', 'YYYY-MM-DD');
m.isValid(); // false

The validation section in the documentation is quite clear.

And also, the following parsing flags result in an invalid date:

• overflow: An overflow of a date field, such as a 13th month, a 32nd day of the month (or a 29th of February on non-leap years), a 367th day of the year, etc. overflow contains the index of the invalid unit to match #invalidAt (see below); -1 means no overflow.
• invalidMonth: An invalid month name, such as moment('Marbruary', 'MMMM');. Contains the invalid month string itself, or else null.
• empty: An input string that contains nothing parsable, such as moment('this is nonsense');. Boolean.
• Etc.

---

Source: http://momentjs.com/docs/

Answer 7

Would like to mention that the jQuery UI DatePicker widget has a very good date validator utility method that checks for format and validity (e.g., no 01/33/2013 dates allowed).

Even if you don't want to use the datepicker widget on your page as a UI element, you can always add its .js library to your page and then call the validator method, passing the value you want to validate into it. To make life even easier, it takes a string as input, not a JavaScript Date object.

See: http://api.jqueryui.com/datepicker/

It's not listed as a method, but it is there-- as a utility function. Search the page for "parsedate" and you'll find:

$.datepicker.parseDate( format, value, settings ) - Extract a date from a string value with a specified format.

Example usage:

var stringval = '01/03/2012';
var testdate;

try {
  testdate = $.datepicker.parseDate('mm/dd/yy', stringval);
             // Notice 'yy' indicates a 4-digit year value
} catch (e)
{
 alert(stringval + ' is not valid.  Format must be MM/DD/YYYY ' +
       'and the date value must be valid for the calendar.';
}

(More info re specifying date formats is found at http://api.jqueryui.com/datepicker/#utility-parseDate)

In the above example, you wouldn't see the alert message since '01/03/2012' is a calendar-valid date in the specified format. However if you made 'stringval' equal to '13/04/2013', for example, you would get the alert message, since the value '13/04/2013' is not calendar-valid.

If a passed-in string value is successfully parsed, the value of 'testdate' would be a Javascript Date object representing the passed-in string value. If not, it'd be undefined.

Answer 8

// check whether date is valid
var t = new Date('2011-07-07T11:20:00.000+00:00x');
valid = !isNaN(t.valueOf());

Answer 9

I really liked Christoph's approach (but didn't have enough of a reputation to vote it up). For my use, I know I will always have a Date object so I just extended date with a valid() method.

Date.prototype.valid = function() {
  return isFinite(this);
}

Now I can just write this and it's much more descriptive than just checking isFinite in code...

d = new Date(userDate);
if (d.valid()) { /* do stuff */ }

Answer 10

I have seen some answers that came real close to this little snippet.

JavaScript way:

function isValidDate(dateObject){
    return new Date(dateObject).toString() !== 'Invalid Date';
}
console.log(isValidDate('WTH')); // -> false
console.log(isValidDate(new Date('WTH'))); // -> false
console.log(isValidDate(new Date())); // -> true

ES2015 way:

const isValidDate = dateObject => new Date(dateObject )
    .toString() !== 'Invalid Date';
console.log(isValidDate('WTH')); // -> false
console.log(isValidDate(new Date('WTH'))); // -> false
console.log(isValidDate(new Date())); // -> true

Updated: To reflect comments.

Answer 11

you can check the valid format of txDate.value with this scirpt. if it was in incorrect format the Date obejct not instanced and return null to dt .

 var dt = new Date(txtDate.value)
 if (isNaN(dt))

And as @MiF's suggested in short way

 if(isNaN(new Date(...)))

Answer 12

I use the following code to validate values for year, month and date.

function createDate(year, month, _date) {
  var d = new Date(year, month, _date);
  if (d.getFullYear() != year 
    || d.getMonth() != month
    || d.getDate() != _date) {
    throw "invalid date";
  }
  return d;
}

For details, refer to Check date in javascript

Answer 13

Too many complicated answers here already, but a simple line is sufficient (ES5):

Date.prototype.isValid = function (d) { return !isNaN(Date.parse(d)) } ;

or even in ES6 :

Date.prototype.isValid = d => !isNaN(Date.parse(d));

Answer 14

This just worked for me

new Date('foo') == 'Invalid Date'; //is true

However this didn't work

new Date('foo') === 'Invalid Date'; //is false

Answer 15

Nice solution! Included in my library of auxiliary functions, now it looks like this:

Object.isDate = function(obj) {
/// <summary>
/// Determines if the passed object is an instance of Date.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="obj">The object to test.</param>

    return Object.prototype.toString.call(obj) === '[object Date]';
}

Object.isValidDate = function(obj) {
/// <summary>
/// Determines if the passed object is a Date object, containing an actual date.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="obj">The object to test.</param>

    return Object.isDate(obj) && !isNaN(obj.getTime());
}

Answer 16

For Angular.js projects you can use:

angular.isDate(myDate);

Answer 17

None of these answers worked for me (tested in Safari 6.0) when trying to validate a date such as 2/31/2012, however, they work fine when trying any date greater than 31.

So I had to brute force a little. Assuming the date is in the format mm/dd/yyyy. I am using @broox answer:

Date.prototype.valid = function() {
    return isFinite(this);
}    

function validStringDate(value){
    var d = new Date(value);
    return d.valid() && value.split('/')[0] == (d.getMonth()+1);
}

validStringDate("2/29/2012"); // true (leap year)
validStringDate("2/29/2013"); // false
validStringDate("2/30/2012"); // false

Answer 18

IsValidDate: function(date) {
        var regex = /\d{1,2}\/\d{1,2}\/\d{4}/;
        if (!regex.test(date)) return false;
        var day = Number(date.split("/")[1]);
        date = new Date(date);
        if (date && date.getDate() != day) return false;
        return true;
}

Answer 19

Inspired by Borgar's approach I have made sure that the code not only validates the date, but actually makes sure the date is a real date, meaning that dates like 31/09/2011 and 29/02/2011 are not allowed.

function(dateStr) {
    s = dateStr.split('/');
    d = new Date(+s[2], s[1]-1, +s[0]);
    if (Object.prototype.toString.call(d) === "[object Date]") {
        if (!isNaN(d.getTime()) && d.getDate() == s[0] && 
            d.getMonth() == (s[1] - 1)) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return "Invalid date!";
}

Answer 20

I've written this function. Pass it a string parameter and it will determine whether it's a valid date or not based on this format "dd/MM/yyyy".

here is a test

input: "hahaha",output: false.

input: "29/2/2000",output: true.

input: "29/2/2001",output: false.

function isValidDate(str) {
    var parts = str.split('/');
    if (parts.length < 3)
        return false;
    else {
        var day = parseInt(parts[0]);
        var month = parseInt(parts[1]);
        var year = parseInt(parts[2]);
        if (isNaN(day) || isNaN(month) || isNaN(year)) {
            return false;
        }
        if (day < 1 || year < 1)
            return false;
        if(month>12||month<1)
            return false;
        if ((month == 1 || month == 3 || month == 5 || month == 7 || month == 8 || month == 10 || month == 12) && day > 31)
            return false;
        if ((month == 4 || month == 6 || month == 9 || month == 11 ) && day > 30)
            return false;
        if (month == 2) {
            if (((year % 4) == 0 && (year % 100) != 0) || ((year % 400) == 0 && (year % 100) == 0)) {
                if (day > 29)
                    return false;
            } else {
                if (day > 28)
                    return false;
            }      
        }
        return true;
    }
}

Answer 21

Date.prototype.toISOString throws RangeError (at least in Chromium and Firefox) on invalid dates. You can use it as a means of validation and may not need isValidDate as such (EAFP). Otherwise it's:

function isValidDate(d)
{
  try
  {
    d.toISOString();
    return true;
  }
  catch(ex)
  {
    return false;    
  }    
}

Answer 22

None of the above solutions worked for me what did work however is

function validDate (d) {
    var date = new Date(d);
    var day = "" + date.getDate();
    if ( day.length == 1 ) day = "0" + day;
    var month = "" + (date.getMonth() + 1);
    if ( month.length == 1 ) month = "0" + month;
    var year = "" + date.getFullYear();
    return (( month + "/" + day + "/" + year ) == d );
}

the code above will see when JS makes 02/31/2012 into 03/02/2012 that it's not valid

Answer 23

I combined the best performance results I found around that check if a given object:

• is a Date instance (benchmark here)
• has a valid date (benchmark here)

The result is the following:

function isValidDate(input) {
  if(!(input && input.getTimezoneOffset && input.setUTCFullYear))
    return false;

  var time = input.getTime();
  return time === time;
};

Answer 24

No one has mentioned it yet, so Symbols would also be a way to go:

Symbol.for(new Date("Peter")) === Symbol.for("Invalid Date") // true

Symbol.for(new Date()) === Symbol.for("Invalid Date") // false

console.log('Symbol.for(new Date("Peter")) === Symbol.for("Invalid Date")', Symbol.for(new Date("Peter")) === Symbol.for("Invalid Date")) // true

console.log('Symbol.for(new Date()) === Symbol.for("Invalid Date")', Symbol.for(new Date()) === Symbol.for("Invalid Date")) // false

Be aware of: https://caniuse.com/#search=Symbol

Answer 25

I rarely recommend libraries when one can do without. But considering the plethora of answers so far it seems worth pointing out that the popular library "date-fns" has a function isValid.

Answer 26

Date object to string is more simple and reliable way to detect if both fields are valid date. e.g. If you enter this "-------" to the date input field. Some of the above answers won't work.

jQuery.validator.addMethod("greaterThan", 

    function(value, element, params) {
        var startDate = new Date($(params).val());
        var endDate = new Date(value);

        if(startDate.toString() === 'Invalid Date' || endDate.toString() === 'Invalid Date') {
            return false;
        } else {
            return endDate > startDate;
        }
    },'Must be greater than {0}.');

Answer 27

For int 1-based components of a date:

var is_valid_date = function(year, month, day) {
    var d = new Date(year, month - 1, day);
    return d.getFullYear() === year && (d.getMonth() + 1) === month && d.getDate() === day
};

Tests:

    is_valid_date(2013, 02, 28)
&&  is_valid_date(2016, 02, 29)
&& !is_valid_date(2013, 02, 29)
&& !is_valid_date(0000, 00, 00)
&& !is_valid_date(2013, 14, 01)

Answer 28

you can convert your date and time to milliseconds getTime()

this getTime() Method return Not a Number NaN when not valid

if(!isNaN(new Date("2012/25/255").getTime()))
  return 'valid date time';
  return 'Not a valid date time';

Answer 29

The selected answer is excellent, and I'm using it as well. However, if you're looking for a way to validate user date input, you should be aware that the Date object is very persistent about making what might appear to be invalid construction arguments into valid ones. The following unit test code illustrates the point:

QUnit.test( "valid date test", function( assert ) {
  //The following are counter-examples showing how the Date object will 
  //wrangle several 'bad' dates into a valid date anyway
  assert.equal(isValidDate(new Date(1980, 12, 15)), true);
  d = new Date();
  d.setFullYear(1980);
  d.setMonth(1);
  d.setDate(33);
  assert.equal(isValidDate(d), true);
  assert.equal(isValidDate(new Date(1980, 100, 150)), true);
  //If you go to this exterme, then the checker will fail
  assert.equal(isValidDate(new Date("This is junk")), false);
  //This is a valid date string
  assert.equal(isValidDate(new Date("November 17, 1989")), true);
  //but is this?
  assert.equal(isValidDate(new Date("November 35, 1989")), false);  
  //Ha!  It's not.  So, the secret to working with this version of 
  //isValidDate is to pass in dates as text strings... Hooboy
  //alert(d.toString());
});

Answer 30

function isValidDate(strDate) {
    var myDateStr= new Date(strDate);
    if( ! isNaN ( myDateStr.getMonth() ) ) {
       return true;
    }
    return false;
}

Call it like this

isValidDate(""2015/5/2""); // => true
isValidDate(""2015/5/2a""); // => false