How to convert unix timestamp to JavaScript date object (consider time zone)

Question

var date = new Date(1257397200000​);
document.write(date);
​

Ran the code above I got Wed Nov 04 2009 23:00:00 GMT-0600 (Central Standard Time)

I am looking for a way to create date object based on different time zone, say for that time stamp I want to obtain date object like Thursday, November 5th 2009, 00:00:00 (GMT -5) .

Note that the dates are different according to above two time zones, though they represent same point in time . I am in CST, is that why the created object is generated using CST?

Thank you.

Answer 1

No, these dates aren't different as they don't represent different point in time. The both represent Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT .

Date object in JavaScript is time-zone independent, it only represents point in time. The fact that Date.toString() includes time zone is very misleading, there is no time-zone information in Date . It is only a wrapper around milliseconds since epoch.

The time zone you see is based on OS/browser locale. You cannot create Date object in different time-zone . Consider using getUTC*() family of methods to get browser time-zone agnostic values.

BTW your example code prints:

Thu Nov 05 2009 06:00:00 GMT+0100 (CET)

on my computer - and this is still the same point in time.

See also

• Annoying javascript timezone adjustment issue