JavaScript Get Information of Week Days Between Two Dates

With and Without Moment JS

  Last Updated May 29, 2022  |  6 minutes  |  1117 words  |  Talha Awan

Requirement: Given a start and end date, we need to find out which days of the week exist between them i.e. Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat (in numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). We might also want to count them, or we may only be interested if weekends exist.

This usually is required in forms where we want to create something recurring or in bulk, and we need to know if a particular weekday comes between the user-selected dates.

Below is the code with explanation, using both JavaScript date and moment js.

Get Days of Week Between Two Dates

1. With JavaScript Date

const getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates = (sDate = "2021-07-18", eDate = "2021-07-20") => {
  const startDate = new Date(sDate)
  const endDate = new Date(eDate);
  
  endDate.setDate(endDate.getDate() + 1);
  
  const daysOfWeek = [];
  
  let i = 0;
  
  while (i < 7 && startDate < endDate) {
    daysOfWeek.push(startDate.getDay());
    startDate.setDate(startDate.getDate() + 1);
    i++;
  }

  return daysOfWeek;
};

getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2021-07-01", "2021-07-04"); // => [ 4, 5, 6, 0 ]
getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2021-07-15", "2021-07-29"); // => [ 4, 5, 6, 0, 1, 2, 3 ]
getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("1999-01-01", "1999-01-06"); // => [ 5, 6, 0, 1, 2, 3 ]
getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2011-06-11", "2007-06-18") // => []

2. With Moment JS

const moment = require("moment");

const getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates = (sDate = "2021-07-18", eDate = "2021-07-20") => {
  const startDate = moment(sDate)
  const endDate = moment(eDate);

  endDate.add(1, "day");

  const daysOfWeek = [];

  let i = 0;

  while (i < 7 && startDate < endDate) {
    daysOfWeek.push(startDate.day());
    startDate.add(1, "day");
    i++;
  }

  return daysOfWeek;
};

getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2021-07-02", "2021-07-05"); // => [ 5, 6, 0, 1 ]
getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2010-07-20", "2010-07-28"); // => [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 0, 1 ]
getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("1999-06-12", "1999-06-17"); // => [ 6, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]
getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2015-06-11", "2000-06-16") // => []

The Code Explained

In both methods above, the steps remain the same:

  • Create a new Date or moment object for start and end dates
  • Add 1 day to the end date, because we want to include the end day in our calculation
  • initialize empty daysOfWeek array and i counter
  • add while loop that checks the counter is less than 7 (because maximum days of week equal 7), and that startDate is smaller than endDate
  • Inside the while loop we push the day into daysOfWeek array, add 1 day to startDate, and increment the i counter
  • finally, return daysOfWeek array

Return Object Instead of Array

Note that we can also use an object hash to store 0 to 6 and assign them true if the day is found. From the above moment example, we’ll replace the following part:

const daysOfWeek = {};

let i = 0;

while (i < 7 && startDate < endDate) {
  daysOfWeek[startDate.day()] = true;
  startDate.add(1, "day");
  i++;
}

return daysOfWeek;

And the result for the same calls will become:

getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2021-07-02", "2021-07-05");
// => { '0': true, '1': true, '5': true, '6': true }

getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2010-07-20", "2010-07-28");
/*
=> {
  '0': true,
  '1': true,
  '2': true,
  '3': true,
  '4': true,
  '5': true,
  '6': true
}
*/

getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("1999-06-12", "1999-06-17") 
// => { '0': true, '1': true, '2': true, '3': true, '4': true, '6': true }

getDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2015-06-11", "2000-06-16") // => {}

Return Day Names Instead of Numbers

For that, modify the above code a little, and use dayNames array of day names:

const dayNames = [
  "sun", 
  "mon", 
  "tue", 
  "wed", 
  "thu", 
  "fri", 
  "sat"
]; // add this at the top

daysOfWeek.push(dayNames[startDate.getDay()]); // modify this inside while loop

// OR in case of returning the hash

daysOfWeek[dayNames[startDate.day()]] = true;

The results will now be something like:

// array
// => [ 'fri', 'sat', 'sun', 'mon', 'tue', 'wed' ]  

// hash
// => { 
//  sat: true, 
//  sun: true, 
//  mon: true, 
//  tue: true, 
//  wed: true, 
//  thu: true 
// }

What Questions Can Be Answered From This Data?

We can use the returned array or hash to answer questions about days of the week such as:

Does Thursday Exist?

// array 
daysOfWeek.includes(4) // => true or false

// hash
daysOfWeek[4] // => true or undefined

Does a Weekend Exist?

// array 
daysOfWeek.includes(0) || daysOfWeek.includes(6)

// hash
daysOfWeek[0] || daysOfWeek[6]

Do a Saturday & Sunday Both Exist (Complete Weekend Exist?)

// array 
daysOfWeek.includes(0) && daysOfWeek.includes(6)

// hash
daysOfWeek[0] && daysOfWeek[6]

Does No Weekend Exist? (Only Weekdays Exist?)

// array 
!daysOfWeek.includes(0) && !daysOfWeek.includes(6)

// hash
!daysOfWeek[0] && !daysOfWeek[6]

Count Days of Week Between Two Dates

With little modification to our original code, we can keep and increment the count of all days of the week between two dates.

1. With JavaScript Date

const countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates = (
    sDate = "2021-07-18", 
    eDate = "2021-07-20"
  ) => {
  const startDate = new Date(sDate)
  const endDate = new Date(eDate);
  
  endDate.setDate(endDate.getDate() + 1);
  
  // initialize each day with 0
  const daysOfWeekCount = { 
    0: 0,
    1: 0,
    2: 0,
    3: 0,
    4: 0,
    5: 0,
    6: 0
  };
  
  while (startDate < endDate) {
    daysOfWeekCount[startDate.getDay()] = daysOfWeekCount[startDate.getDay()] + 1;
    startDate.setDate(startDate.getDate() + 1);
  }

  return daysOfWeekCount;
 
};

2. With Moment JS

const countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates = (
    sDate = "2021-07-18", 
    eDate = "2021-07-20"
  ) => {
  const startDate = moment(sDate)
  const endDate = moment(eDate);

  endDate.add(1, "day");

  const daysOfWeekCount = {
    0: 0,
    1: 0,
    2: 0,
    3: 0,
    4: 0,
    5: 0,
    6: 0
  };

  while (startDate < endDate) {
    daysOfWeekCount[startDate.day()] = daysOfWeekCount[startDate.day()] + 1;
    startDate.add(1, "day");
  }

  return daysOfWeekCount;
 
};

Results

Calling countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates returns us an object hash with keys from 0 to 6, and the count of each day against them, within the given start and end date.

countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2000-01-01", "2021-01-01");
/*
=> {
  '0': 1096,
  '1': 1096,
  '2': 1096,
  '3': 1096,
  '4': 1096,
  '5': 1096,
  '6': 1096
} 
*/

countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("1900-01-01", "1999-12-31");
/*
=> {
  '0': 5217,
  '1': 5218,
  '2': 5218,
  '3': 5218,
  '4': 5218,
  '5': 5218,
  '6': 5217
}
*/

countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("2021-01-01", "2021-07-01");
/*
=> { 
  '0': 26, 
  '1': 26, 
  '2': 26, 
  '3': 26, 
  '4': 26, 
  '5': 26, 
  '6': 26 
}
*/

From the result object, we can tell the count of any day of the week, or a combination of them, individually. For example:

Count Sundays Since the Beginning of the Calendar

const weekDaysCount = countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("0000-01-01", new Date());

weekDaysCount[0]; // => 105480

Count Weekends Between World War 1 & World War 2

const weekDaysCount = countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("1918-11-11", "1939-10-31");

weekDaysCount[0] + weekDaysCount[6] // => 2188

Although there are other one-liners for finding that, we can also sum all the days of the week and get the total number of days between two dates. For example:

Count Days Between World War 1 & World War 2

const weekDaysCount = countDaysOfWeekBetweenDates("1918-11-11", "1939-10-31");

weekDaysCount[0] + 
weekDaysCount[1] +
weekDaysCount[2] + 
weekDaysCount[3] +
weekDaysCount[4] + 
weekDaysCount[5] +
weekDaysCount[6] 

// => 7660



javascript  algorithms 

See also

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