How do I output an ISO 8601 formatted string in JavaScript?

Solution 1:

There is already a function called toISOString():

var date = new Date();
date.toISOString(); //"2011-12-19T15:28:46.493Z"

If, somehow, you're on a browser that doesn't support it, I've got you covered:

if (!Date.prototype.toISOString) {
  (function() {

    function pad(number) {
      var r = String(number);
      if (r.length === 1) {
        r = '0' + r;
      }
      return r;
    }

    Date.prototype.toISOString = function() {
      return this.getUTCFullYear() +
        '-' + pad(this.getUTCMonth() + 1) +
        '-' + pad(this.getUTCDate()) +
        'T' + pad(this.getUTCHours()) +
        ':' + pad(this.getUTCMinutes()) +
        ':' + pad(this.getUTCSeconds()) +
        '.' + String((this.getUTCMilliseconds() / 1000).toFixed(3)).slice(2, 5) +
        'Z';
    };

  }());
}

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

Solution 2:

See the last example on page https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference:Global_Objects:Date:

/* Use a function for the exact format desired... */
function ISODateString(d) {
    function pad(n) {return n<10 ? '0'+n : n}
    return d.getUTCFullYear()+'-'
         + pad(d.getUTCMonth()+1)+'-'
         + pad(d.getUTCDate())+'T'
         + pad(d.getUTCHours())+':'
         + pad(d.getUTCMinutes())+':'
         + pad(d.getUTCSeconds())+'Z'
}

var d = new Date();
console.log(ISODateString(d)); // Prints something like 2009-09-28T19:03:12Z