date.toString

The toString() method returns a string representing the specified Date object.

Syntax

dateObj.toString()

Return value

A string representing the given date.

Description

The Date object overrides the toString() method of the Object object; it does not inherit Object.prototype.toString(). For Date objects, the toString() method returns a string representation of the object.

The toString() method always returns a string representation of the date in American English.

JavaScript calls the toString() method automatically when a date is to be represented as a text value or when a date is referred to in a string concatenation.

toString() is a generic method. If this is not a Date instance, it returns "Invalid Date".

Examples

Using toString()

The following assigns the toString() value of a Date object to myVar:

var x = new Date();
myVar = x.toString(); // assigns a value to myVar similar to:
// Mon Sep 28 1998 14:36:22 GMT-0700 (PDT)

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
ECMAScript 1st Edition (ECMA-262)	Standard	Initial definition. Implemented in JavaScript 1.0.
ECMAScript 5.1 (ECMA-262) The definition of 'Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2015 (6th Edition, ECMA-262) The definition of 'Date.prototype.toString' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2017 Draft (ECMA-262) The definition of 'Date.prototype.toString' in that specification.	Draft

Browser compatibility

See also

• Object.prototype.toString()
• Date.prototype.toDateString()
• Date.prototype.toLocaleString()
• Date.prototype.toTimeString()