Get the Previous day of a Date using JavaScript

Get the Previous day of a Date using JavaScript #

Use the setDate() method to get the previous day of a date, e.g. date.setDate(date.getDate() - 1). The setDate method takes the day of the month as a parameter and changes the value for the Date instance.

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function getPreviousDay(date = new Date()) {
  const previous = new Date(date.getTime());
  previous.setDate(date.getDate() - 1);

  return previous;
}

console.log(getPreviousDay()); // 👉️ yesterday

// 👇️ Fri Dec 23 2022
console.log(getPreviousDay(new Date('2022-12-24')));

// 👇️ Sat Dec 31 2022
console.log(getPreviousDay(new Date('2023-01-01')));

We created a reusable function that returns the previous day of a date.

We defined the previous variable because the setDate method mutates the Date object it was called on.

This might not be what you want if you need to preserve the passed in date object.

The setDate method takes an integer 1-31 that represents the day of the month and changes the value on the given Date object.

We used the getDate method to get the day of the month for the specific date and decremented the result by 1.

The getDate method returns an integer between 1 and 31.

Note that the Date object automatically handles the scenario that the date is the first of the month.

If that is the case, the Date object rolls back to the previous month automatically.

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function getPreviousDay(date = new Date()) {
  const previous = new Date(date.getTime());
  previous.setDate(date.getDate() - 1);

  return previous;
}

// 👇️ Tue Jan 31 2023
console.log(getPreviousDay(new Date('2023-02-01')));

// 👇️ Sat Dec 31 2022
console.log(getPreviousDay(new Date('2023-01-01')));

As you can see the Date object also handles the scenario where the previous day is the last day of the previous year.