In order to format dates, a Date object must be transformed into a string representation that follows to a predefined format. JavaScript simplifies this procedure with its built-in methods and updated APIs. We’ll explore at both older, more cumbersome formats for dates as well as more recent, simpler ones.

These are the following approaches:

Using toLocaleDateString()

The toLocaleDateString() method returns a string with a language-sensitive representation of the date portion of this date.

Syntax:

dateObj.toLocaleDateString(locale, options);

Example: This code gets the current date and formats it into a readable string in the format “Month Day, Year” (e.g., “June 20, 2024”).

console.log(new Date()
    .toLocaleDateString('en-US',
        { year: 'numeric', month: 'long', day: 'numeric' }));

July 1, 2024

Using Date.prototype.toISOString()

The toISOString() method returns a date string formatted according to the ISO 8601 extended format.

Syntax:

dateObj.toISOString();

Example: This code gets the current date and time and formats it into an ISO 8601 string format (e.g., “2024-06-21T12:34:56.789Z”).

console.log(new Date().toISOString());

2024-07-01T10:10:01.334Z