'How do I format dates from Mongoose in Node.js?

I'm trying to change the format of the dates I'm getting from my Mongo database. Currently they look like this:

Fri Sep 16 2011 19:05:17 GMT+0900 (JST)

I've tried calling .toString('yyyy-MM-dd') on them but nothing changes. I don't know if they're Date objects or just raw strings.

I've tried checking the Mongoose manual and googling a bunch, but not found anything yet.

Any ideas?

Solution 1:^[1]

A modern way to do this is to use momentjs, both usable in node and in the browser, super useful and simple to use. For the current problem I solved it like this in node after following all the docs requirements :

var moment = require('moment');
var fomatted_date = moment(photo.date_published).format('YYYY-MM-DD');

with photo.date_published directly coming from mongoose.

Solution 2:^[2]

what about defining your schema like:

var someSchema = new Schema({
    title: String,
    created: Date
});

s.t. the date is stored as a Date object in your mongoDB. As a result, when you read it back you'll have a proper Date object on which you can work with the available methods.

Solution 3:^[3]

Just Simply Add

date: { type: String, default: Date }

Output will be: { "date": "Sat Nov 28 2020 22:57:38 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)" }

Solution 4:^[4]

created_at:{ type:Date, default:Date.now } add this simple line for current date and time

output:----- Fri Jul 02 2021 10:45:26 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time)

Solution 5:^[5]

What I tend to do is, in the Schema, I define dates with a Date type:

const exampleSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    startDate: {
        type: Date,
        required: true  // or false, depending upon needs (plus other options, as needed)
    },
    endDate: {
        type: Date,
        required: true  // or false, depending upon needs (plus other options, as needed)
    },
    whateverDate: {
        type: Date,
        required: true  // or false, depending upon needs (plus other options, as needed)
    }
});

Then I define an instance method for the mongoose schema:

// Returns a date in 'yyyy-MM-dd' format
exampleSchema.methods.formatDate = function(datePropery) {
    const newDate = new Date(this[dateProperty]);
    let formattedDate = `${ newDate.getFullYear() }-`;
        formattedDate += `${ `0${ newDate.getMonth() + 1 }`.slice(-2) }-`;  // for double digit month
        formattedDate += `${ `0${ newDate.getDate() }`.slice(-2) }`;        // for double digit day
    return formattedDate;
}

And, define the mongoose model:

const Example = new mongoose.model('Example', exampleSchema);

Later, after I've selected a particular instance (for me this is generally within an async function), e.g.

const item = await Example.findOne({searchFor: searchTerm});

I can get the formatted dates in the following way:

item.formatDate('startDate');     // for startDate field (see exampleSchema), or
item.formatDate('endDate');       // for endDate field (see exampleSchema), or
item.formatDate('whateverDate');  // for whateverDate field (see exampleSchema).

If the item is passed from Express to HTML, e.g.:

res.render('mypage', {item});

it can then be used in HTML (at least for the case of ejs view engine) as:

<%= item.formatDate('startDate') %>
<%= item.formatDate('endDate') %>
<%= item.formatDate('whateverDate') %>

Perhaps this is a bit long-winded, although it works nicely for me.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution	Source
Solution 1	Simon
Solution 2	Juri
Solution 3	Nishant Rana
Solution 4	tarun rathore
Solution 5	Atif

'How do I format dates from Mongoose in Node.js?

Solution 1:[1]

Solution 2:[2]

Solution 3:[3]

Solution 4:[4]

Solution 5:[5]