Javascript Date.parse help

Question

I am using Javascript Date.parse() to check if a start time is after an end time.

The time in question is like this:

Date.parse("12:0         


        

Answer 1

What version of IE are you testing this on? IE8 correctly returns false for me.

Answer 2

You can not just pass a time to Date.parse(), as it is expecting a datestring. If you flip the > in your code to a <, you'll notice it still returns false. This is because Date.parse() is returning NaN.

Try this:

var a = new Date("January 1, 1970 12:00:00");
var b = new Date("January 1, 1970 21:30:00");

if (a > b) { alert(true); } else { alert(false); }
if (a < b) { alert(true); } else { alert(false); }

Answer 3

The docs for Date.parse() in IE state the following:

If the 24-hour clock is used, it is an error to specify "PM" for times later than 12 noon. For example, "23:15 PM" is an error.

For a cross-browser solution, you should avoid parse() and parse the time string manually. Alternatively, you could use a cross-browser library for parsing dates/times - DateJS is a popular one.