CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptdate
Bryce
Bryce

Reputation: 6660

Two identical JavaScript dates aren't equal

When I create two identical JavaScript Date objects and then compare them, it appears that they are not equal. How to I test if two JavaScript dates have the same value?

var date1 = new Date('Mon Mar 11 2013 00:00:00');
var date2 = new Date('Mon Mar 11 2013 00:00:00');
console.log(date1 == date2); //false?

JS Fiddle available here

Upvotes: 29

Views: 14588

Answers (3)

Sachin Jain
Sachin Jain

Reputation: 21842

First of all, you are making a sound mistake here in comparing the references. Have a look at this:

var x = {a:1};
var y = {a:1};

// Looks like the same example huh?
alert (x == y); // It says false

Here, although the objects look identical they hold different slots in memory. Reference stores only the address of the object. Hence both references (addresses) are different.

So now, we have to compare the values since you know reference comparison won't work here. You can just do

if (date1 - date2 == 0) {
    // Yep! Dates are equal
} else {
   // Handle different dates
}

Upvotes: 23

user3175004
user3175004

Reputation: 1

I compare many kinds of values in a for loop, so I wasn't able to evaluate them by substracting, instead I coverted values to string before comparing

var a = [string1, date1, number1]
var b = [string2, date2, number2]
for (var i in a){
  if(a.toString() == b.toString()){
    // some code here
  }
}

Upvotes: 0

Bryce
Bryce

Reputation: 6660

It appears this has been addressed already.

To check whether dates are equal, they must be converted to their primitives:

date1.getTime()=== date2.getTime()
//true

Upvotes: 55

Related Questions