Solve - RangeError - Invalid time value in JavaScript

Solve - RangeError: Invalid time value #

The "Uncaught RangeError: Invalid time value" error occurs when calling a method on an invalid date, e.g. new Date('asdf').toISOString(). To solve the error, conditionally check if the date is valid before calling the method on it.

Here's an example of how the error occurs:

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console.log(new Date('asdf')); // 👉️ "Invalid Date"

// ⛔️ Uncaught RangeError: Invalid time value
const d = new Date('asdf').toISOString();

If you can see where exactly the error occurs, check the error message in your browser's console or your terminal (if using Node.js).

The screenshot above shows that the error occurred in the index.js file on line 5.

The Date() constructor returns an "invalid date" value when provided a string that is not a valid date. Calling a method on an invalid date causes the error.

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console.log(new Date('asdf')); // 👉️ Invalid Date
console.log(new Date('2022-32-33')); // 👉️ Invalid Date
console.log(new Date('one-two-20')); // 👉️ Invalid Date

To solve the "Invalid time value" error, only call date methods on valid date objects.

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console.log(new Date(1317996123)); // 👉️ Fri Jan 16 ...
console.log(new Date('24 September 2022 15:30 UTC')); // 👉️ Sat Sep 24 ...

Here's a function that you can use to validate a date before calling any methods on it.

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function dateIsValid(date) {
  return !Number.isNaN(new Date(date).getTime());
}


console.log(dateIsValid(1317996123)); // 👉️ true
console.log(dateIsValid('24 September 2022 15:30 UTC')); // 👉️ true
console.log(dateIsValid('asdf')); // 👉️ false
console.log(dateIsValid('2022-32-33')); // 👉️ false

If the date is invalid, the getTime() method will return a NaN (not a number) value.

We check if the value is not NaN and return the result. If the value is not NaN, we have a valid date on which we can safely call a method.

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function dateIsValid(date) {
  return !Number.isNaN(new Date(date).getTime());
}


const date = '2022-32-33';

if (dateIsValid(date)) {
  console.log(new Date(date).toISOString());
} else {
  // 👇️ this runs
  console.log('not a valid date');
}

Before calling the toISOString method on the date, we validate it. This enables us to avoid getting the "Invalid time value" range error.