Get Yesterday's Date in JavaScript or Node.js

Sometimes it’s helpful to translate dates into labels in your web application. For example, the human brain perceives the label „yesterday“ easier than translating the string of yesterday’s date to „yesterday“.

This tutorial shows you how to calculate yesterday’s date in JavaScript.

Node.js Series Overview

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  2. Remove All Whitespace From a String in JavaScript
  3. Generate a Random ID or String in Node.js or JavaScript
  4. Remove Extra Spaces From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  5. Remove Numbers From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
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  7. Get the Part After a Character in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  8. How to Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. Check If a String Includes All Strings in JavaScript/Node.js/TypeScript
  10. Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript and Node.js
  11. Limit and Truncate a String to a Given Length in JavaScript and Node.js
  12. Split a String into a List of Characters in JavaScript and Node.js
  13. How to Generage a UUID in Node.js
  14. Reverse a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  15. Split a String into a List of Lines in JavaScript or Node.js
  16. Split a String into a List of Words in JavaScript or Node.js
  17. Detect if a String is in camelCase Format in Javascript or Node.js
  18. Check If a String Is in Lowercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  19. Check If a String is in Uppercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  20. Get the Part After First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  21. Get the Part Before First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  22. Get the Part Before Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  23. Get the Part After Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  24. How to Count Words in a File
  25. How to Shuffle the Characters of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  26. Append Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  27. Check if a String is Empty in JavaScript or Node.js
  28. Ensure a String Ends with a Given Character in JavaScript or Node.js
  29. Left-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  30. Right-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  31. Lowercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  32. Uppercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  33. Prepend Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  34. Check if a String is a Number
  35. Convert a String to Buffer

How Do You Get Yesterday’s Date in JavaScript

JavaScript ships with a handful of methods to adjust dates. One of those methods is the setDate method allowing you to change the day of a date. Calculating yesterday’s date is subtracting one day from today.

Here’s a sample function calculating yesterday’s date (from now):

/**
 * Returns yesterday‘s date. Basically "now minus one day". Automatically handles month and year changes.
 *
 * @returns {Date}
 */
function yesterday () {  
  const yesterday = new Date()
  yesterday.setDate(yesterday.getDate() - 1)

  return yesterday
}

Also, a nice part of JavaScript’s setDate function is the automatic handling of the month and year changes. For example, when retrieving yesterday on July 1st you’re receiving June 30th. That’s great handling by JavaScript!

yesterday()  
// 2022-06-30T14:40:56.627Z
// at the time of writing this tutorial "new Date()" is "2022-07-01"

Enjoy!

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