Check if a Date is less than 1 Hour ago using JavaScript

Check if a Date is less than 1 Hour ago using JavaScript #

To check if a date is less than 1 hour ago:

1. Convert 1 hour to milliseconds.
2. Get a timestamp that represents the time 1 hour ago.
3. Check if the date's timestamp is greater than the timestamp 1 hour ago.

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function isLessThan1HourAgo(date) {
  // 👇️                     min  sec  milliseconds
  const hourInMilliseconds = 60 * 60 * 1000;

  const oneHourAgo = Date.now() - hourInMilliseconds;

  return date > oneHourAgo;
}

console.log(isLessThan1HourAgo(new Date())); // 👉️ true

console.log(isLessThan1HourAgo(new Date('2022-01-25'))); // 👉️ false

We created a reusable function that takes a Date object as a parameter and checks if the date is less than 1 hour ago.

The first step is to calculate how many milliseconds there are in an hour.

The Date.now() method returns the number of milliseconds elapsed since midnight of the 1st of January 1970.

By subtracting 1 hour in milliseconds from the timestamp, we get the moment in time 1 hour ago.

We are able to compare the date to a timestamp because under the hood each date stores a timestamp - the number of milliseconds elapsed between the 1st of January 1970 and the given date.

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const date = new Date('2022-09-24');

// 👇️ 1663977600000
console.log(date.getTime());

If you need to check if a date is less than 1 hour ago and is not in the future, add a condition that checks that the date is less than or equal to the current timestamp.

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function isLessThan1HourAgo(date) {
  // 👇️                     min  sec  milliseconds
  const hourInMilliseconds = 60 * 60 * 1000;

  const oneHourAgo = Date.now() - hourInMilliseconds;

  return date > oneHourAgo && date <= Date.now();
}

console.log(isLessThan1HourAgo(new Date())); // 👉️ true

console.log(isLessThan1HourAgo(new Date('2035-01-29'))); // 👉️ false

The second condition would not be met for any dates in the future.

The logical AND (&&) operator will only return true if both conditions are met, otherwise false is returned.