Javascript: Subtracting Days/Hours/Minutes from a Date

There will be many cases where you need to subtract a number of days/hours/minutes/seconds from a given date object. The following examples will demonstrate how to do that in Javascript.

In the first example, we’re just subtracting days from a date. It is both simple to understand and common in practice. Here’s the code:

const subtractDays = (date, days) => {
     const result = new Date(date);
     result.setDate(result.getDate() - days);
     return result;
}

console.log(subtractDays(new Date('2022-12-30 19:40:39'), 10));

Output:

Tue Dec 20 2022 19:40:39 GMT+0000 (Greenwich Mean Time)

The second example is more complete because it allows you to list the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds to subtract. Here’s the code:

const subtractTime = (date, days, hours, minutes, seconds) => {
     const result = new Date(date);
     result.setDate(result.getDate() - days);
     result.setHours(result.getHours() - hours);
     result.setMinutes(result.getMinutes() - minutes);
     result.setSeconds(result.getSeconds() - seconds);
     return result;
}

console.log(subtractTime(new Date('2022-12-30 19:40:39'), 30, 5, 30, 10));

Output:

Wed Nov 30 2022 14:10:29 GMT+0000 (Greenwich Mean Time)

In both examples, we declared functions to increase reusability. This isn’t a must-do but I think it’s elegant. Javascript is fun and useful in tech life. Keep learning to hone your skills:

• 2 Ways to Format Currency in Javascript
• Javascript Object: Find the Key(s) of a given Value
• Javascript: How to Reverse an Integer
• Javascript: Looping through Keys/Values of an Object
• VS Code & Javascript/TypeScript: Place Curly Braces on New Line

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