Updated April 20, 2023
Introduction of JavaScript DatePicker
Javascriptdatepicker is defined as a lightweight or friendly control feature tied up or used on a standard form having the input field and also for allowing the user to easily select a date from the calendar which has month, week, year, and days and it is a feature for navigating from one date to another easily using datepicker. In simpler words, javascript datepicker is defined to support the user for easily switching between dates and also support maximum and minimum dates along with enabling and disabling of dates for the exact or particular date selection with different date formats.
Working of DatePicker in JavaScript
In this article, we will see a javascript which is a programming language of the web and this uses datepicker() method which is used for the creation of datepicker for a customized selection of dates of any format which allows user to easily swipe between date ranges using few add-in buttons or any other navigation options, also provides a restricted selection for disabling dates. In general, using a plain calendar for date selection we can just link this calendar directly to any plain field in HTML or any styled input so that it can fit right to the page using javascript. The datepicker feature usually transforms any input or div or spans tags of HTML or elements such as text fields to associate it with the calendar and can control any dates using datepicker. In javascript, we have datepicker() method to deal with date range and selection of dates and this datepicker() function defines a <input> tag or element is associated with the calendar when it is managed with datepicker and we know that in HTML when input tag is used in that <input type =”date”> can be used for selection of dates from the calendar.
There many ways the web developers use datepickers to make the users choose their dates easily so datepickers are important and this is where web developers have to select the proper datepicker types there are many types such as simply typing the date in the text box; providing dropdown to select date by each month, year and day; widely used is showing the calendar with wide date range; scrolling datepickers on mobile devices to select the dates, etc. There are a wide variety of datepickers available such as react date pickers, react-datepickers, react-day-pickers, react-widget, vue.js Date pickers, etc. So web developers keep these points in the mind when designing the datepickers so that the user does not get any error while selecting the dates such as developers provide a list of an applicable and limited number of date range and formats, there will be no option for illogical date formats, and also it will not allow any user to enter any other special characters other than the format of the date range is provided.
Now we will see the working of datepicker in javascript. Firstly, we need to install this datepicker options and it can be done in two different ways.
We can include datepicker feature in our javascript program by specifying the below inside the <head> and <body> tags.Inside <head> we have to use “datepicker.min.css” and inside <body> tag use “datepicker.min.js”.
Another way is using via npm as the first one is done manually so run the below command as:
npm install js-datepickerSo the datepicker() method can also be imported from js-datepicker library and it can be done as follows:
import datepicker from 'js-datepicker'Now let us see the syntax of datepicker() method:
Syntax:
(selector, context).datepicker(options) or const p = datepicker (selector, options)In the above, the syntax datepicker() method takes parameters such as selector and options. The parameter “selector” which can either take string type such as css selector such as “.my-id” or “div” or DOM node such as document.querySelector(‘.my-id’). Another parameter of this method is “options” which is also an optional parameter that holds wide varieties of options such as closeText, currentText, dateFormat, dayNames, and many more.
Example of JavaScript DatePicker
Now let us consider an example for the creation of datepicker using the above datepicker() method.
Example #1
Code:
<!doctype html>
<head>
<title>Educba Training Institute with JS DatePicker</title>
<link href = "https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/themes/ui-lightness/jquery-ui.css"
rel = "stylesheet">
<script src = "https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
<script src = "https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/jquery-ui.js"></script>
<script>
$(function() {
$( "#datepicker" ).datepicker();
});
</script>
</head>
<body style = "background-color: cyan;">
<h1 style ="color:red;"font-family:informal Roman"> Example for datepicker in Javascript</h1>
<p style ="color:blue;","font-family:courier">Enter Date: <input type = "text" id = "datepicker"></p>
</body>
</html>Output:
In the above program, we can see in the script tag where we declare datepicker() method under the function section in the above HTML script. So we have to write the above script in notepad and save the file with .html extension and then open this file in “Google chrome” or “Internet Explorer” or any browser and we will get the output as shown in the first screenshot and then when we start entering the date in the input box as shown in the second screenshot, where we can see we have selected today’s date. So in this, we have linked <input> tag directly where the calendar opens automatically and it focuses on the date selected and then clicks on it so it will display on the input field.
As in the above program, we saw a simple datpicker creation that shows a simple calendar on clicking on the input field. But there are many different ways of datepickers used in various web pages such as web pages display even time along with the date, some display multiple-day picker which allows selecting dates that are not in range, highlighting the weekends in the datepicker, display of week numbers, etc.
Conclusion
In this article, we conclude that javascript which is mainly used for designing web pages so the datepicker of javascript is very important when it is used in any school or exam websites to select the date of birth and there are many other websites which used DOB for validation so in such cases also datepicker plays an important role. In javascript, datepicker is used to handle date range easily for navigating between the dates for users. In this article, we saw a simple example of how datepicker is created.
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This is a guide to JavaScript DatePicker. Here we also discuss the introduction and working of datepicker in javascript along with and explanation. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
