Stacks Datetime

Stacks DateTime

Carbon-inspired DateTime class with immutable operations and zero external dependencies.

Key Paths

• Core package: storage/framework/core/datetime/src/
• Package: @stacksjs/datetime

Architecture

The index.ts exports:

export { DateTime, now } from './now'
export { format } from './format'
export { parse } from './parse'
export { format as dateFormat } from './format'  // convenience alias

Three source files:

• now.ts — DateTime class and now() helper
• format.ts — standalone format() function with token-based formatting and timezone support
• parse.ts — standalone parse() function with token-based parsing

DateTime Class (now.ts)

Construction

import { DateTime, now } from '@stacksjs/datetime'

const dt = new DateTime()                          // current time
const dt = new DateTime(new Date())                // from native Date (cloned)
const dt = new DateTime('2024-06-15')              // from date string
const dt = new DateTime('15/06/2024', 'DD/MM/YYYY') // from string with format

// Static factory methods
const dt = DateTime.now()                          // current time
const dt = DateTime.create(2024, 6, 15, 10, 30, 0) // year, month (1-12), day, hour, min, sec
const dt = DateTime.fromDate(new Date())           // from native Date
const dt = DateTime.parse('2024-06-15')            // from string
const dt = DateTime.parse('15/06/2024', 'DD/MM/YYYY') // from string with format

Note: DateTime.create() uses 1-based months (1=January), converting internally with month - 1.

Getters (read-only properties)

dt.year        // number -- full year (e.g. 2024)
dt.month       // number -- 1-12 (1-based, NOT zero-based like native Date)
dt.day         // number -- day of month (1-31)
dt.hour        // number -- 0-23
dt.minute      // number -- 0-59
dt.second      // number -- 0-59
dt.dayOfWeek   // number -- 0 (Sunday) through 6 (Saturday)
dt.timestamp   // number -- milliseconds since Unix epoch

Formatting

dt.format('YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss')           // '2024-06-15 10:30:00'
dt.format('MMMM D, YYYY', 'en')            // 'June 15, 2024'
dt.format('HH:mm', { locale: 'de', tz: 'Europe/Berlin' })

dt.toDateString()                            // 'YYYY-MM-DD' format
dt.toTimeString()                            // 'HH:mm:ss' format
dt.toDateTimeString()                        // 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss' format
dt.toISOString()                             // ISO 8601 (native Date.toISOString)
dt.toString()                                // same as toDateTimeString()
dt.toJSON()                                  // same as toISOString()

Format Tokens

Used by both DateTime.format() and the standalone format() function:

Tokens are matched longest-first to avoid partial matching.

Arithmetic (all return NEW DateTime instances -- immutable)

dt.addSeconds(30)      dt.subSeconds(30)
dt.addMinutes(15)      dt.subMinutes(15)
dt.addHours(2)         dt.subHours(2)
dt.addDays(7)          dt.subDays(7)
dt.addWeeks(1)         dt.subWeeks(1)    // delegates to addDays(n * 7)
dt.addMonths(3)        dt.subMonths(3)
dt.addYears(1)         dt.subYears(1)

Implementation details:

• addSeconds/Minutes/Hours use millisecond arithmetic on timestamp
• addDays uses Date.setDate() (handles month boundaries correctly)
• addMonths uses Date.setMonth() (handles year boundaries)
• addYears uses Date.setFullYear()
• All sub* methods delegate to add*(-n)

Period Boundaries (return NEW DateTime instances)

dt.startOfDay()     // sets time to 00:00:00.000
dt.endOfDay()       // sets time to 23:59:59.999

dt.startOfMonth()   // sets to 1st of month, 00:00:00.000
dt.endOfMonth()     // sets to last day of month, 23:59:59.999
                    // uses new Date(year, month + 1, 0) trick for last day

dt.startOfYear()    // January 1, 00:00:00.000
dt.endOfYear()      // December 31, 23:59:59.999

Setters (return NEW DateTime instances)

dt.setYear(2025)     // new DateTime with year changed
dt.setMonth(6)       // 1-based month (internally does month - 1)
dt.setDay(15)        // uses Date.setDate()
dt.setHour(10)
dt.setMinute(30)
dt.setSecond(0)

Comparison

dt.isBefore(other)         // true if this < other (millisecond comparison)
dt.isAfter(other)          // true if this > other
dt.isSame(other)           // true if exact same millisecond
dt.isSameDay(other)        // true if same year, month, day (ignores time)
dt.isBetween(start, end)   // true if this > start AND this < end (exclusive)
dt.isPast()                // true if before Date.now()
dt.isFuture()              // true if after Date.now()
dt.isToday()               // true if same day as today (uses isSameDay)
dt.isLeapYear()            // true if year % 4 === 0 && (year % 100 !== 0 || year % 400 === 0)

All comparison methods accept DateTime | Date as the other parameter.

Difference

dt.diffInSeconds(other)    // number -- Math.floor((this - other) / 1000)
dt.diffInMinutes(other)    // number -- Math.floor(diffInSeconds / 60)
dt.diffInHours(other)      // number -- Math.floor(diffInSeconds / 3600)
dt.diffInDays(other)       // number -- Math.floor(diffInSeconds / 86400)

Returns signed values: positive if this is after other, negative if before.

Conversion

dt.toNativeDate()          // new Date (cloned)
dt.valueOf()               // number (milliseconds since epoch)
dt.toJSON()                // ISO string (for JSON serialization)

Standalone format() Function (format.ts)

import { format } from '@stacksjs/datetime'

format(new Date(), 'YYYY-MM-DD')                    // '2024-06-15'
format('2024-06-15', 'MMMM D, YYYY')                // 'June 15, 2024'
format(new Date(), 'dddd, MMMM D, YYYY h:mm A')     // 'Saturday, June 15, 2024 10:30 AM'

// With locale
format(new Date(), 'dddd, MMMM D', 'de')            // 'Samstag, Juni 15'

// With timezone
format(new Date(), 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm Z', { tz: 'America/New_York' })
format(new Date(), 'HH:mm', { locale: 'en', tz: 'Asia/Tokyo' })

Signature: format(inputDate: Date | string, formatStr?: string, localeOrOptions?: string | { locale?: string, tz?: string })

Default format string: 'YYYY-MM-DD' Default locale: 'en'

Timezone Support

When a tz option is provided, the function uses Intl.DateTimeFormat with timeZone to extract date parts in the target timezone. The timezone offset (Z token) is computed by comparing UTC wall-clock time to the timezone's wall-clock time.

Without tz, uses local time via native Date getters (faster path, no Intl overhead for numeric parts). Named parts (month names, weekday names) always use Intl for locale support.

Standalone parse() Function (parse.ts)

import { parse } from '@stacksjs/datetime'

// Without format string -- native Date parsing with fix
parse('2024-06-15')                    // Date -- treated as LOCAL time (not UTC)
parse('2024-06-15T10:30:00Z')          // Date -- ISO string, native parsing

// With format string -- token-based extraction
parse('15/06/2024', 'DD/MM/YYYY')      // Date
parse('June 15, 2024', 'MMMM DD, YYYY') // Date
parse('2024-06-15 10:30:00', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss')  // Date
parse('03:30 PM', 'hh:mm A')          // Date with AM/PM handling
parse('2024-06-15 10:30 +0530', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm Z') // Date with timezone offset

Parse Behavior

Without format string:

• Date-only ISO strings (YYYY-MM-DD) are parsed as LOCAL time, not UTC -- this is a deliberate fix for the native Date behavior where new Date('2024-06-15') treats it as UTC causing day shifts
• All other strings use native new Date() parsing
• Throws on invalid dates

With format string:

• Builds a regex from the format tokens and extracts named groups
• Supports tokens: YYYY, YY, MMMM, MMM, MM, M, DD, D, HH, H, hh, h, mm, m, ss, s, A, a, Z
• YY: years 70-99 become 1900s, 00-69 become 2000s
• AM/PM: adjusts hours for 12-hour format (12 AM = 0, 12 PM = 12)
• Month names: handles full ("January") and short ("Jan") names, case-insensitive
• Z token: parses +HHMM offset, constructs UTC time and adjusts
• Throws if the format doesn't match the input string

now() Helper

import { now } from '@stacksjs/datetime'

now()                                  // DateTime.now()
now().toDateString()                   // '2024-06-15'
now().format('MMMM D, YYYY')          // 'June 15, 2024'
now().addDays(7).toDateString()        // one week from now
now().startOfMonth().toDateString()    // first of current month

Gotchas

• All DateTime arithmetic operations return NEW instances -- the original is never mutated
• DateTime.month returns 1-12 (1-based), NOT 0-11 like native Date
• DateTime.create(year, month) takes 1-based month -- internally converts with month - 1
• dayOfWeek returns 0 (Sunday) through 6 (Saturday) -- matches native Date.getDay()
• timestamp returns MILLISECONDS since epoch, not seconds
• diffIn* methods return signed values -- positive when this is after other
• isBetween(start, end) is EXCLUSIVE on both ends (strictly between)
• parse('2024-06-15') without format is treated as LOCAL time (intentional deviation from spec)
• The Z timezone offset token format is +HHMM (no colon) -- e.g. +0530, -0800
• format() with tz option uses Intl.DateTimeFormat which requires valid IANA timezone names
• The d token in formatting returns the NARROW weekday (single letter like "W"), not a day number
• endOfMonth() uses the new Date(year, month + 1, 0) trick to find the last day
• Application timezone should be configured in config/app.ts
• Prefer @stacksjs/datetime over raw Date for framework consistency