Get month name from Date

Question

How can I generate the name of the month (e.g: Oct/October) from this date object in JavaScript?

var objDate = new Date("10/11/2009");

Answer 1

Shorter version:

const monthNames = ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June",
  "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"
];

const d = new Date();
document.write("The current month is " + monthNames[d.getMonth()]);

Note (2019-03-08) - This answer by me which I originally wrote in 2009 is outdated. See David Storey's answer for a better solution.

Answer 2

It is now possible to do this with the ECMAScript Internationalization API:

const date = new Date(2009, 10, 10);  // 2009-11-10
const month = date.toLocaleString('default', { month: 'long' });
console.log(month);

'long' uses the full name of the month, 'short' for the short name, and 'narrow' for a more minimal version, such as the first letter in alphabetical languages.

You can change the locale from browser's 'default' to any that you please (e.g. 'en-us'), and it will use the right name for that language/country.

With toLocaleString^api you have to pass in the locale and options each time. If you are going do use the same locale info and formatting options on multiple different dates, you can use Intl.DateTimeFormat instead:

const formatter = new Intl.DateTimeFormat('fr', { month: 'short' });
const month1 = formatter.format(new Date());
const month2 = formatter.format(new Date(2003, 5, 12));
console.log(`${month1} and ${month2}`); // current month in French and "juin".

For more information see my blog post on the Internationalization API.

Answer 3

Here's another one, with support for localization :)

Date.prototype.getMonthName = function(lang) {
    lang = lang && (lang in Date.locale) ? lang : 'en';
    return Date.locale[lang].month_names[this.getMonth()];
};

Date.prototype.getMonthNameShort = function(lang) {
    lang = lang && (lang in Date.locale) ? lang : 'en';
    return Date.locale[lang].month_names_short[this.getMonth()];
};

Date.locale = {
    en: {
       month_names: ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'],
       month_names_short: ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', 'Jul', 'Aug', 'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']
    }
};

you can then easily add support for other languages:

Date.locale.fr = {month_names: [...]};

Answer 4

If you don't mind extending the Date prototype (and there are some good reasons to not want to do this), you can actually come up with a very easy method:

Date.prototype.monthNames = [
    "January", "February", "March",
    "April", "May", "June",
    "July", "August", "September",
    "October", "November", "December"
];

Date.prototype.getMonthName = function() {
    return this.monthNames[this.getMonth()];
};
Date.prototype.getShortMonthName = function () {
    return this.getMonthName().substr(0, 3);
};

// usage:
var d = new Date();
alert(d.getMonthName());      // "October"
alert(d.getShortMonthName()); // "Oct"

These functions will then apply to all javascript Date objects.

Answer 5

I heartily recommend the format function from, the moment.js library, which you can use like this:

moment().format("MMM");  // "Apr" - current date
moment(new Date(2012, 01, 04)).format("MMM");  // "Feb" - from a local date
moment.utc(new Date(2012, 00, 04).format("MMM"); // "Jan" - from a UTC date

Use "MMMM" instead of "MMM" if you need the full name of the month

In addition to a lengthy list of other features, it has strong support for internationalization.

Answer 6

Date.prototype.getMonthName = function() {
    var monthNames = [ "January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", 
                       "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December" ];
    return monthNames[this.getMonth()];
}

It can be used as

var month_Name = new Date().getMonthName();

Answer 7

You might use datejs to do that. Check the FormatSpecifiers, MMMM gives you the month's name:

var objDate = new Date("10/11/2009");
document.write(objDate.toString("MMMM"));

And datejs got that localized for more than 150 locales! See here

Answer 8

Some common easy process from date object can be done by this.

var monthNames = ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June",
  "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"
];
var monthShortNames = ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun",
  "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"
];

function dateFormat1(d) {
  var t = new Date(d);
  return t.getDate() + ' ' + monthNames[t.getMonth()] + ', ' + t.getFullYear();
}

function dateFormat2(d) {
  var t = new Date(d);
  return t.getDate() + ' ' + monthShortNames[t.getMonth()] + ', ' + t.getFullYear();
}

console.log(dateFormat1(new Date()))
console.log(dateFormat2(new Date()))

Or you can make date prototype like

Date.prototype.getMonthName = function() {
  var monthNames = ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June",
    "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"
  ];
  return monthNames[this.getMonth()];
}


Date.prototype.getFormatDate = function() {
  var monthNames = ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June",
    "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"
  ];
  return this.getDate() + ' ' + monthNames[this.getMonth()] + ', ' + this.getFullYear();
}


console.log(new Date().getMonthName())
console.log(new Date().getFormatDate())

Ex:

var dateFormat3 = new Date().getMonthName(); # March

var dateFormat4 = new Date().getFormatDate(); # 16 March, 2017

Answer 9

Try:

var objDate = new Date("10/11/2009");

var strDate =
    objDate.toLocaleString("en", { day: "numeric" }) + ' ' +
    objDate.toLocaleString("en", { month: "long"  }) + ' ' +
    objDate.toLocaleString("en", { year: "numeric"});

Answer 10

Here's a way that does not depend on a hard-coded array and supports multiple locales.

If you need a whole array:

var monthsLocalizedArray = function(locale) {
    var result = [];
    for(var i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
        result.push(new Date(2010,i).toLocaleString(locale,{month:"long"}));
    }
    return result;
};

Usage:

console.log(monthsLocalizedArray('en')); // -> ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"]
console.log(monthsLocalizedArray('bg')); // -> ["януари", "февруари", "март", "април", "май", "юни", "юли", "август", "септември", "октомври", "ноември", "декември"]

If you need only a selected month (faster):

var monthLocalizedString = function(month, locale) {
    return new Date(2010,month).toLocaleString(locale,{month:"long"});
};

Usage:

console.log(monthLocalizedString(1, 'en')); // -> February
console.log(monthLocalizedString(1, 'bg')); // -> февруари
console.log(monthLocalizedString(1, 'de')); // -> Februar

Tested and works fine on Chrome and IE 11. On mozilla some modifications are needed, because it returns the whole date.

Answer 11

Unfortunately the best way to extract the month name is from the UTCString representation:

Date.prototype.monthName = function() {
    return this.toUTCString().split(' ')[2]
};

d = new Date();
//=> Thu Mar 06 2014 23:05:21 GMT+0000 (GMT)

d.monthName();
//=> 'Mar'

Answer 12

The natural format this days is to use Moment.js.

The way to get the month in a string format , is very simple in Moment.js no need to hard code the month names in your code: To get the current month and year in month name format and full year (May 2015) :

  moment(new Date).format("MMMM YYYY");

Answer 13

Instead of declaring array which hold all the month name and then pointing with an index, we can also write it in a shorter version as below:

var objDate = new Date().toLocaleString("en-us", { month: "long" }); // result: August
var objDate = new Date().toLocaleString("en-us", { month: "short" }); // result: Aug

Answer 14

You can use one of several available Date formatters. Since this falls within the JavaScript specification, it will be available in both browser and server-side modes.

objDate.toString().split(" ")[1]; // gives short name, unsure about locale 
objDate.toLocaleDateString.split(" ")[0]; // gives long name

e.g.

js> objDate = new Date(new Date() - 9876543210)
Mon Feb 04 2013 12:37:09 GMT-0800 (PST)
js> objDate.toString().split(" ")[1]
Feb
js> objDate.toLocaleString().split(" ")[0]
February

There are more at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date

Answer 15

With momentjs, just use the format notation.

const myDate = new Date()
const shortMonthName = moment(myDate).format('MMM') // Aug
const fullMonthName = moment(myDate).format('MMMM') // August

Answer 16

Store the names in a array and look up by the index of the month.

var month=new Array(12);
month[0]="January";
month[1]="February";
month[2]="March";
month[3]="April";
month[4]="May";
month[5]="June";
month[6]="July";
month[7]="August";
month[8]="September";
month[9]="October";
month[10]="November";
month[11]="December";

document.write("The current month is " + month[d.getMonth()]);

JavaScript getMonth() Method

Answer 17

If you're using jQuery, you're probably also using jQuery UI, which means you can use $.datepicker.formatDate().

$.datepicker.setDefaults( $.datepicker.regional[ "nl" ] );   // dutch
$.datepicker.formatDate( "dd MM yy", objDate );

Answer 18

If you don't want to use an external library, or store an array of month names, or if the ECMAScript Internationalization API is not good enough because of browser compatibility you can always do it the old-fashioned way by extracting the info from the date output:

var now = new Date();
var monthAbbrvName = now.toDateString().substring(4, 7);

This would give you the abbreviated month name, e.g. Oct. I believe the date will come in all sorts of formats depending on the initialization and your locale so take a look at what toDateString() returns and recalculate your substring() values based on that.

Answer 19

My Best Solution is as follow:

       var dateValue = Date();
       var month = dateValue.substring(4,7);
       var date = dateValue.substring(8,10);
       var year = dateValue.substring(20,24);
       var finaldateString = date+"-"+month+"-"+year;

Answer 20

If you don't want to use moment and want to display month name -

.config($mdDateLocaleProvider) {
    $mdDateLocaleProvider.formatDate = function(date) {      
      if(date !== null) {
        if(date.getMonthName == undefined) {
          date.getMonthName = function() {
            var monthNames = [ "January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", 
            "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December" ];
            return monthNames[this.getMonth()];
          }
        }        
        var day = date.getDate();
        var monthIndex = date.getMonth();
        var year = date.getFullYear();
        return day + ' ' + date.getMonthName() + ' ' + year;
      }
    };
  }

Answer 21

This can be also done if you are using kendo.

kendo.toString(dateobject, "MMMM");

Here are list of formatters from kendo site:

"d" Renders the day of the month, from 1 through 31.

"dd" The day of the month, from 01 through 31.

"ddd" The abbreviated name of the day of the week.

"dddd" The full name of the day of the week.

"f" The tenths of a second in a date and time value.

"ff" The hundredths of a second in a date and time value.

"fff" The milliseconds in a date and time value.

"M" The month, from 1 through 12.

"MM" The month, from 01 through 12.

"MMM" The abbreviated name of the month.

"MMMM" The full name of the month.

"h" The hour, using a 12-hour clock from 1 to 12.

"hh" The hour, using a 12-hour clock from 01 to 12.

"H" The hour, using a 24-hour clock from 1 to 23.

"HH" The hour, using a 24-hour clock from 01 to 23.

"m" The minute, from 0 through 59.

"mm" The minute, from 00 through 59.

"s" The second, from 0 through 59.

"ss" The second, from 00 through 59.

"tt" The AM/PM designator.

"yy" The last two characters from the year value.

"yyyy" The year full value.

"zzz" The local timezone when using formats to parse UTC date strings.

Answer 22

I have a partial solution that I came up with. It uses a regular expression to extract the month and day name. But as I look through the Region and Language options (Windows) I realize that different cultures have different format order... maybe a better regular expression pattern could be useful.

function testDateInfo() {
        var months = new Array();
        var days = new Array();
        var workingDate = new Date();
        workingDate.setHours(0, 0, 0, 0);
        workingDate.setDate(1);
        var RE = new RegExp("([a-z]+)","ig");
        //-- get day names 0-6
        for (var i = 0; i < 7; i++) {

            var day = workingDate.getDay();
            //-- will eventually be in order
            if (days[day] == undefined)
                days[day] = workingDate.toLocaleDateString().match(RE)[0];
            workingDate.setDate(workingDate.getDate() + 1);
        }
        //--get month names 0-11
        for (var i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
            workingDate.setMonth(i);
            months.push(workingDate.toLocaleDateString().match(RE)[1]);
        }
        alert(days.join(",") + " \n\r " + months.join(","));
    }

Answer 23

function getMonthName(month) 
{ 
return ["January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September", "October","November","December"][parseInt(month)-1]
}

Answer 24

Another way to format date

new Date().toLocaleString('en-us',{month:'long', year:'numeric', day:'numeric'}) //output: "May 21, 2019"

Answer 25

Just extending on the many other excellent answers - if you are using jQuery - you could just do something like

$.fn.getMonthName = function(date) {

    var monthNames = [
    "January", "February", "March",
    "April", "May", "June",
    "July", "August", "September",
    "October", "November", "December"
    ];

    return monthNames[date.getMonth()];

};

where date is equal to the var d = new Date(somevalue). The primary advantage of this is per @nickf said about avoiding the global namespace.

Answer 26

To get a array of month name :

Date.monthNames = function( ) {
var arrMonth = [],
    dateRef = new Date(),
    year = dateRef.getFullYear();

dateRef.setMonth(0);
while (year == dateRef.getFullYear()) {
    /* push le mois en lettre et passe au mois suivant */
    arrMonth.push( (dateRef.toLocaleString().split(' '))[2] );
    dateRef.setMonth( dateRef.getMonth() + 1);
}

return arrMonth;
}

alert(Date.monthNames().toString());

// -> janvier,février,mars,avril,mai,juin,juillet,août,septembre,octobre,novembre,décembre

http://jsfiddle.net/polinux/qb346/

Answer 27

Use this mate

function month(a){
var mNames = [ "January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December" ];
return mNames[a-1];
}

Answer 28

Just write a simple wrapper around toLocaleString :

function LocalDate(locale) {
  this.locale = locale;
}

LocalDate.prototype.getMonthName = function(date) {
  return date.toLocaleString(this.locale,{month:"long"});
};

var objDate = new Date("10/11/2009");

var localDate = new LocalDate("en");
console.log(localDate.getMonthName(objDate));

localDate.locale = "ru";
console.log(localDate.getMonthName(objDate));

localDate.locale = "zh";
console.log(localDate.getMonthName(objDate));

Answer 29

A quick hack I used which works well:

const monthNumber = 8;
const yearNumber = 2018;
const date = `${['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr',
  'May', 'Jun', 'Jul', 'Aug',
  'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec'][monthNumber - 1]
      } ${yearNumber}`;

console.log(date);