Essential Moment.js Methods: A Complete Guide

add()

Changes the original moment by adding time. It is a robust feature that accepts a key and a quantity, a duration, or an object literal.

moment().add(Number, String);
moment().add(Duration);
moment().add(Object);

Example adding 7 days: moment().add(7, 'days'); Short keys can be used for brevity: moment().add(7, 'd'); years – y

quarters – Q

months – M

weeks – w

days – d

hours – h

minutes – m

seconds – s

milliseconds – ms

Multiple keys can be added either by chaining or by passing an object literal:

moment().add(7, 'days').add(1, 'months'); // chain
moment().add({days:7,months:1}); // object literal

subtract()

Changes the original moment by subtracting time, mirroring moment#add but with subtraction.

moment().subtract(Number, String);
moment().subtract(Duration);
moment().subtract(Object);

Example:

moment().subtract(7, 'days');

startOf()

Sets the moment to the beginning of a specified unit. moment().startOf(String); Examples:

moment().startOf('year');    // Jan 1 00:00 of current year
moment().startOf('month');   // 1st day 00:00 of current month
moment().startOf('quarter'); // start of current quarter
moment().startOf('week');    // start of ISO week
moment().startOf('day');     // today 00:00
moment().startOf('hour');    // current hour, minutes/seconds/ms set to 0
moment().startOf('minute');  // current minute, seconds/ms set to 0
moment().startOf('second');  // equivalent to moment().milliseconds(0)

These shortcuts are equivalent to setting each component manually:

moment().startOf('year');
moment().month(0).date(1).hours(0).minutes(0).seconds(0).milliseconds(0);
moment().startOf('hour');
moment().minutes(0).seconds(0).milliseconds(0);

endOf()

Sets the moment to the end of a specified unit, the counterpart of startOf. moment().endOf(String); Example:

moment().endOf('year'); // Dec 31 23:59:59.999 of current year

format()

Formats a moment into a string using token strings.

moment().format();
moment().format(String);

Examples:

moment().format(); // "2014-09-08T08:02:17-05:00"
moment().format('dddd, MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm:ss a'); // "Sunday, February 14th 2010, 3:25:50 pm"
moment().format('ddd, hA'); // "Sun, 3PM"
moment('gibberish').format('YYYY MM DD'); // "Invalid date"

Month – M – 1 2 … 12

Mo – 1st 2nd … 12th

MM – 01 02 … 12

MMM – Jan Feb … Dec

MMMM – January February … December

Quarter – Q – 1 2 3 4

Qo – 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Day of month – D – 1 2 … 31

Do – 1st 2nd … 31st

DD – 01 02 … 31

Day of year – DDD – 1 2 … 365

DDDo – 1st 2nd … 365th

DDDD – 001 002 … 365

Weekday – d – 0 1 … 6

do – 0th 1st … 6th

dd – Su Mo … Sa

ddd – Sun Mon … Sat

dddd – Sunday Monday … Saturday

Locale weekday – e – 0 1 … 6

ISO weekday – E – 1 2 … 7

Week of year – w – 1 2 … 53

wo – 1st 2nd … 53rd

ww – 01 02 … 53

ISO week of year – W – 1 2 … 53

Wo – 1st 2nd … 53rd

WW – 01 02 … 53

Year – YY – 70 71 … 30

YYYY – 1970 1971 … 2030

Y – 1970 1971 … 9999 (+10000 …)

Era – gg – 70 71 … 30

gggg – 1970 1971 … 2030

GG – 70 71 … 30

GGGG – 1970 1971 … 2030

Meridiem – A – AM PM

a – am pm

Hour (24‑hour) – H – 0 1 … 23

HH – 00 01 … 23

Hour (12‑hour) – h – 1 2 … 12

hh – 01 02 … 12

Minute – m – 0 1 … 59

mm – 00 01 … 59

Second – s – 0 1 … 59

ss – 00 01 … 59

Fractional second – S – 0 1 … 9

SS – 00 01 … 99

SSS – 000 001 … 999

SSSS… – 000[0..] …

Timezone – z / zz – EST CST … (deprecated from 1.6.0)

Z – -07:00 … +07:00

ZZ – -0700 … +0700

Unix timestamp – X – 1360013296

Unix millisecond timestamp – x – 1360013296123

Localized format tokens are available from version 2.0.0; LTS was added in 2.8.4.

Escaping characters

Wrap characters in square brackets to escape them in format strings.

moment().format('[今天] dddd'); // "今天 Sunday"

fromNow()

moment().fromNow();
moment().fromNow(Boolean);

Displays relative time from now. Passing true returns the value without the suffix.

moment([2007, 0, 29]).fromNow(); // "4 years ago"
moment([2007, 0, 29]).fromNow(true); // "4 years"

from()

moment().from(Moment|String|Number|Date|Array);
moment().from(Moment|String|Number|Date|Array, Boolean);

Shows relative time from a given moment to another. The first argument can be any value accepted by moment() or an actual Moment instance.

var a = moment([2007, 0, 28]);
var b = moment([2007, 0, 29]);
a.from(b); // "1 day ago"

Passing true as the second argument returns the value without the suffix.

var start = moment([2007, 0, 5]);
var end   = moment([2007, 0, 10]);
end.from(start, true); // "5 days"

toNow()

moment().toNow();
moment().toNow(Boolean);

Similar to fromNow but returns the opposite interval ( a.fromNow() = - a.toNow()).

moment([2007, 0, 29]).toNow(); // "in 4 years"
moment([2007, 0, 29]).toNow(true); // "4 years"

to()

moment().to(Moment|String|Number|Date|Array);
moment().to(Moment|String|Number|Date|Array, Boolean);

Shows relative time from the current moment to another moment.

var a = moment([2007, 0, 28]);
var b = moment([2007, 0, 29]);
a.to(b); // "in 1 day"

Passing true as the second argument returns the value without the suffix.

var start = moment([2007, 0, 5]);
var end   = moment([2007, 0, 10]);
end.to(start, true); // "5 days"

From version 2.10.3, an invalid endpoint yields a localized "Invalid date" string.

valueOf()

moment().valueOf();
+moment();

Outputs the milliseconds since the Unix epoch, similar to Date#valueOf.

moment(1318874398806).valueOf(); // 1318874398806
+moment(1318874398806); // 1318874398806

Use moment#unix to get the Unix timestamp in seconds.

unix()

moment().unix();

Returns the Unix timestamp (seconds since epoch). The value is rounded down to the nearest second.

moment(1318874398806).unix(); // 1318874398

daysInMonth()

moment().daysInMonth();

Returns the number of days in the current month.

moment('2012-02', 'YYYY-MM').daysInMonth(); // 29
moment('2012-01', 'YYYY-MM').daysInMonth(); // 31

toDate()

moment().toDate();

Returns a copy of the native Date object encapsulated by the moment. Modifying the returned Date does not affect the original moment; to manipulate the moment itself, use moment#manipulate or moment#set.