ptg 234 Chapter 9 • JavaScript Core Objects 9.4 The Date Object JavaScript provides the Date object for manipulating date and time. 2 Like the String and Array objects, you can create as many instances as you like. As we’ll see, the Date object provides a number of methods for getting or setting spe- cific information about the date and time. The date is based on the UNIX date starting at January 1, 1970 (in Greenwich Mean Time 3 [GMT]), and doesn’t support dates before that time. Figure 9.19 gives you an idea of the difference between GMT and local time. Time is measured in milliseconds (one millisecond is one thousandth of a second). Because client-side JavaScript programs run on a browser, the Date object returns times and dates that are local to the browser, not the server. Of course, if the computer is not set to the correct time, then the Date object won’t produce the expected results. Figure 9.20 shows a typical date and time control panel. 2. For more information about the time and date, see http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/. 3. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is now called Universal Coordinate Time (UTC). The current time in Greenwich, England is five hours + New York’s present time, or eight hours + San Francisco’s present time. Figure 9.19 24-hour world time zones map with current time. Courtesy of http://www.worldtimezone.com/index24.html. From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 9.4 The Date Object 235 If no arguments are passed to the Date object constructor, it returns the local date and time (based on the accuracy of the clock on your client machine). There are five formats that can be passed as arguments when creating a Date object; shown in Example 9.16. 9.4.1 Using the Date Object Methods The Date object comes with a large number of methods (see Table 9.3) and only a prototype property. For browser versions supporting Date methods, see http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_datetime.asp. Figure 9.20 The computer’s date and time settings. EXAMPLE 9.16 new Date("Month dd, yyyy hh:mm:ss") new Date("Month dd, yyyy") new Date(yy,mm,dd,hh,mm,ss) new Date(yy,mm,dd) new Date(milliseconds) Here are a few examples of instantiating a date: mydate = new Date() mydate = new Date("March 15, 2010 09:25:00") mydate = new Date(“March 15, 2010”) mydate = new Date(10,2,15) mydate = new Date(10,2,15,9,25,0) mydate = new Date(500); From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 236 Chapter 9 • JavaScript Core Objects Table 9.3 Date Object Methods Method What It Does getDate Returns the day of the month (1–31) getDay Returns the day of the week (0–6); 0 is Sunday, 1 is Monday, and so on getFullYear Returns the year with four digits getHours Returns the hour (0–23) getMilliseconds Returns the millisecond getMinutes Returns hours since midnight (0–23) getMonth Returns number of month (0–11); 0 is January, 1 is February, and so on getSeconds Returns the second (0–59) getTime Returns number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970 getTimeZoneOffset Returns the difference in minutes between current time on local computer and UTC getUTCDate() Returns the day of the month getUTCDay() Returns the day of the week converted to universal time get UTCFullYear() Returns the year in four digits converted to universal time getUTCHours() Returns the hour converted to universal time getUTCMilliseconds() Returns the millisecond converted to universal time parse() Converts the passed-in string date to milliseconds since January 1, 1970 setDate(value) Sets day of the month (1–31) setFullYear() Sets the year as a four-digit number* setHours() Sets the hour within the day (0–23) setHours(hr,min,sec,msec) Sets hour in local or UTC time setMilliseconds Sets the millisecond* setMinutes(min,sec, msec) Sets minute in local time or UTC setMonth(month,date) Sets month in local time setSeconds() Sets the second From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 9.4 The Date Object 237 setTime() Sets time from January 1, 1970, in milliseconds setUTCdate() Sets the day of the month in universal time setUTCFullYear() Sets the year as a four-digit number in universal time setUTCHours() Sets the hour in universal time setUTCMilliseconds() Sets the millisecond in universal time setUTCMinutes() Sets the minute in universal time setUTCMonth() Sets the month in universal time setUTCSeconds() Sets the second in universal time setYear() Sets the number of years since 1900 (00–99) toGMTString() Returns the date string in universal format toLocaleString Returns the string representing date and time based on locale of computer as 10/09/99 12:43:22 toSource() Returns the source of the Date object toString() Returns string representing date and time toUTCString() Returns string representing date and time as 10/09/99 12:43:22 in universal time UTC() Converts comma-delimited values to milliseconds valueOf() Returns the equivalence of the Date object in milliseconds EXAMPLE 9.17 <html> <head><title>Time and Date</title></head> <body bgcolor="aqua"><h2>Date and Time</h2> <big> <script type="text/javascript"> 1 var now = new Date(); // Now is an instance of a Date object document.write("<b>Local time:</b> " + now + "<br />"); 2 var hours=now.getHours(); 3 var minutes=now.getMinutes(); 4 var seconds=now.getSeconds(); 5 var year=now.getFullYear(); Continues Table 9.3 Date Object Methods (continued) Method What It Does From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 238 Chapter 9 • JavaScript Core Objects 9.4.2 Manipulating the Date and Time JavaScript stores dates in milliseconds, so if you have more complicated calculations to perform, such as the number of days before a date, or between two dates, the informa- tion in Table 9.4 might be helpful in converting milliseconds to minutes, hours, days, and so forth. document.write("The full year is " + year +"<br />"); document.write("<b>The time is:</b> " + hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + seconds); </script> </big> </body> </html> EXPLANATION 1 A new Date object called now is created. It contains a string with the current date and time: Mon Aug 10 18:22:36 GMT-0700(Pacific Daylight Time). 2 The variable called hours is assigned the return value of the getHours() method. 3 The variable called minutes is assigned the return value of the getMinutes() method. 4 The variable called seconds is assigned the return value of the getSeconds() method. 5 The variable called year is assigned the return value of the getFullYear() method, 2010. The output is shown in Figure 9.21. Figure 9.21 Date object and its methods. EXAMPLE 9.17 (CONTINUED) From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 9.4 The Date Object 239 Table 9.4 Basic Units of Time Unit of Time Milliseconds 1 second 1,000 1 minute second * 60 (1,000 * 60) 1 hour minute * 60 (1,000 * 60 * 60) 1 day hour * 24 (1,000 * 60 * 60 * 24 ) 1 week day * 7 (1,000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 7 ) EXAMPLE 9.18 <html> <head><title>Countdown 'til Christmas</title></head> <body bgColor="#00FF99"> <font face="arial" size=5 color=red> <script type="text/javascript"> 1 var today = new Date(); 2 var fullyear = today.getFullYear(); 3 var future = new Date("December 25, "+ fullyear); 4 var diff = future.getTime() - today.getTime(); // Number of milliseconds 5 var days = Math.floor(diff / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 )); // Convert to days 6 var str="Only <u>" + days + "</u> shopping days left 'til Christmas! "; document.write(str+"<br />"); </script> </font> </body> </html> EXPLANATION 1 A new Date object called today is created. 2 The getFullYear() method returns the year as 2010. 3 Another Date object called future is created. It will contain the future date, Christ- mas, passed as its argument. 4 The difference between the future time and the present time is calculated and re- turned in milliseconds with the getTime() method. 5 The Math object is used to round down the result of converting milliseconds to days. 6 This string contains the number of days between the present date and Christmas (see Figure 9.22). From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 240 Chapter 9 • JavaScript Core Objects 9.4.3 Customizing the Date Object with the prototype Property All objects have a prototype property that allows you to extend the capabilities of the object. With the Date object’s prototype property, you can customize the time and the date by providing new methods and properties that will be inherited by all instances of this object. Because the Date object provides methods that return zero-based months, weeks, years, and other measures, you might want to create a prototype method where “January” is month number 1 instead of 0, and the day is “Monday” instead of 1, and so on. Figure 9.22 The number of days between two dates has been calculated. EXAMPLE 9.19 <html> <head><title>The Prototype Property</title> <script type = "text/javascript"> // Customize the Date 1 function weekDay(){ 2 var now = this.getDay(); 3 var names = new Array(7); names[0]="Sunday"; names[1]="Monday"; names[2]="Tuesday"; names[3]="Wednesday"; names[4]="Thursday"; names[5]="Friday"; names[6]="Saturday"; 4 return(names[now]); } 5 Date.prototype.DayOfWeek=weekDay; </script> </head> <body bgcolor="pink"> <font face="arial"> <big> <div align="center"> <script type="text/javascript"> 6 var today=new Date(); 7 document.write("Today is " + today.DayOfWeek() + ".<br />"); </script> </div> </big> </font> </body> </html> From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 9.5 The Math Object 241 9.5 The Math Object The Math object allows you to work with more advanced arithmetic calculations, such as square root, trigonometric functions, logarithms, and random numbers, than are pro- vided by the basic numeric operators. If you are doing simple calculations, you really won’t need it. Unlike other objects, you don’t have to create an instance of the Math object with the new keyword. It is a built-in object and has a number of properties (see Table 9.5) and methods (see Table 9.6). The Math object always starts with an uppercase M. EXPLANATION 1 The function called weekDay() is defined. 2 The variable now is assigned a number representing the day of the week, where 0 is Sunday. 3 A new Array object called names is created. It will contain seven elements. Each element will be assigned the name of the weekday (e.g., “Sunday”). 4 The value in now, a number between 0 and 6, will be used as an index in the names array. If now is 6, then the value of names[6], “Saturday”, will be returned. 5 A prototype method called DayOfWeek is assigned the name of the function week- Day. Now the Date object has a new method that will be inherited by all objects created from the Date() constructor. The capabilities of the Date object have been extended to provide a method that will return the name of the weekday. (See Chapter 8 for more on prototypes.) 6 A new Date object is created with the Date() constructor function. 7 The new prototype method is called, and returns the string value of today’s date, “Saturday” (see Figure 9.23). Figure 9.23 The day is converted to a string using a prototype. Table 9.5 Math Object Properties Property Value Description Math.E 2.718281828459045091 Euler’s constant, the base of natural logarithms Math.LN2 0.6931471805599452862 Natural log of 2 Math.LN10 2.302585092994045901 Natural log of 10 Continues From the Library of WoweBook.Com . ptg 234 Chapter 9 • JavaScript Core Objects 9.4 The Date Object JavaScript provides the Date object for manipulating date and time. 2 Like. Date</title></head> <body bgcolor="aqua"><h2>Date and Time</h2> <big> <script type="text /javascript& quot;> 1 var now = new Date(); // Now. What It Does From the Library of WoweBook.Com ptg 238 Chapter 9 • JavaScript Core Objects 9.4.2 Manipulating the Date and Time JavaScript stores dates in milliseconds, so if you have more complicated