@date-js/date-formatter

Format a date. Nothing else. Under 1KB gzipped.

No config. No plugins. No dependencies. Locale support out of the box via the native Intl API.

DateFormatter.format('%l, %F %j %Y', new Date());
// Sunday, March 29 2026

DateFormatter.format('%l %j %F %Y', new Date(), 'fr-FR');
// dimanche 29 mars 2026

Why this lib?

If all you need is to display a date, there's no point in shipping a full date toolkit. Perfect for landing pages, lightweight widgets, or any project where pulling in a full date library would be overkill.

• Under 1KB gzipped — no dead code, no bloat
• Zero dependencies — nothing to audit, nothing to break
• Locale support out of the box — automatically uses the browser language, no config needed
• Familiar syntax — %Y-%m-%d style, like PHP's date() or Python's strftime

Install & Usage

With a bundler (webpack, Vite, Rollup…)

npm install @date-js/date-formatter

Use the default export to get a ready-to-use singleton:

import DateFormatter from '@date-js/date-formatter';

DateFormatter.format('%d/%m/%Y', new Date()); // 29/03/2026
DateFormatter.setLocale('fr-FR');
DateFormatter.format('%l %j %F %Y', new Date()); // dimanche 29 mars 2026

Or import the class directly to create isolated instances (useful when managing multiple locales):

import { DateFormatter } from '@date-js/date-formatter';

const fr = new DateFormatter('fr-FR');
const en = new DateFormatter('en-US');

fr.format('%l %j %F %Y', new Date()); // dimanche 29 mars 2026
en.format('%l %j %F %Y', new Date()); // Sunday March 29 2026

In a browser — classic script tag

The UMD bundle exposes DateFormatter as a global:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@date-js/date-formatter@2/dist/date-formatter.
js"></script>
<script>
  DateFormatter.format('%d/%m/%Y', new Date()); // 29/03/2026
</script>

In a browser — ES module

Modern browsers support <script type="module"> without any bundler:

<script type="module">
  import DateFormatter from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.
  net/npm/@date-js/date-formatter@2/dist/date-formatter.js';

  DateFormatter.format('%d/%m/%Y', new Date()); // 29/03/2026
</script>

Format specifiers

| Specifier | Description | Example | |---|---|---| | %Y | Year, 4 digits | 2026 | | %y | Year, 2 digits | 26 | | %d | Day of the month, with leading zero | 01 – 31 | | %j | Day of the month, without leading zero | 1 – 31 | | %l | Full weekday name (locale-aware) | Sunday, dimanche | | %D | Short weekday name (locale-aware) | Sun, dim. | | %F | Full month name (locale-aware) | March, mars | | %M | Short month name (locale-aware) | Mar, mars | | %m | Month, with leading zero | 01 – 12 | | %n | Month, without leading zero | 1 – 12 | | %H | Hour (24h), with leading zero | 00 – 23 | | %G | Hour (24h), without leading zero | 0 – 23 | | %i | Minutes, with leading zero | 00 – 59 | | %s | Seconds, with leading zero | 00 – 59 |

Escape a % with a backslash: \%.

License

MIT