Date Fns How Do I Format To Utc

Are you looking to work with dates in your projects but finding yourself confused about converting them to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC)? Fear not! In this article, we will show you how to format dates to UTC using Date-fns, a handy and popular JavaScript library for manipulating dates.

First things first, if you haven't already, ensure that you have Date-fns installed in your project. You can do this easily using npm with the following command:

npm install date-fns

Once you have Date-fns set up, let's dive into how you can format dates to UTC using this library. To start, let's assume you have a date that you want to convert to UTC. Follow these steps to achieve this effortlessly:

1. Import the required functions from the Date-fns library in your JavaScript file:

import { format, utcToZonedTime } from 'date-fns';
import { utcToZonedTime } from 'date-fns-tz';

2. Now, you can use the `utcToZonedTime` function to convert your date to UTC. Here's a quick example of how you can achieve this:

const date = new Date('2022-10-19T14:30:00');
const utcDate = utcToZonedTime(date, 'UTC');

In the above code snippet, we are taking a date and converting it to UTC using the `utcToZonedTime` function. The second argument specifies the time zone to convert to; in this case, we are converting to UTC.

3. Finally, you can format the UTC date as needed using the `format` function provided by Date-fns. Here's an example of formatting the UTC date to a specific format:

const formattedUtcDate = format(utcDate, "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSxxx");
console.log('Formatted UTC Date:', formattedUtcDate);

In the `format` function, the first argument is the Date object you want to format, and the second argument is the format string. You can customize the output by changing the format string to suit your requirements.

By following these simple steps, you can efficiently format dates to UTC using Date-fns in your JavaScript projects. Utilizing the power of this library makes working with dates and time zones a breeze, enhancing the functionality and user experience of your applications.

We hope this article has provided you with a clear understanding of how to format dates to UTC using Date-fns. So go ahead, give it a try in your projects and see the difference it can make in handling date and time-related operations seamlessly. Happy coding!