File:JavaScript getYear Method Problem.png

Summary

Description
English: Webpage screenshots showing the JavaScript .getYear method problem. It depicts the so-called Year 2000 problem.

The results of the .getYear method are different with Internet Explorer 6-8 and the other modern browsers:

  • IE3, IE9+, other modern browsers: .getYear always returns a 2-digit value that is the stored year minus 1900).
  • IE4-8, other modern browsers:
    • .getYear returns a 2-digit value that is the stored year minus 1900) for the years 1900 through 1999;
    • it returns the 4-digit full year for dates outside that range.

.getYear is now obsoleted, but supported for backward compatibility by all modern browsers.

.getFullYear is not supported before IE6. With those that support it, the 4-digit full year is always returned. This method is currently recommended.

HTML and JavaScript code (by Tomchen1989 under CC0 1.0)
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>JavaScript .getYear Method Problem</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<style>
table{border-collapse:collapse;}
th,td{border:1px solid #000;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<tr>
	<th>Real year</th>
	<th>1858</th><th>1990</th><th>1994</th><th>2000</th><th>2007</th>
</tr>
<tr>
	<th>.getYear() result</th>
	<td id="getyear1"></td><td id="getyear2"></td><td id="getyear3"></td><td id="getyear4"></td><td id="getyear5"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<th>.getFullYear() result</th>
	<td id="getfullyear1"></td><td id="getfullyear2"></td><td id="getfullyear3"></td><td id="getfullyear4"></td><td id="getfullyear5"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<script>
var dates = [new Date("1858, 1, 1"), new Date("1990, 1, 1"), new Date("1994, 1, 1"), new Date("2000, 1, 1"), new Date("2007, 1, 1")];
for (var i = 0; i < dates.length; i++) {
	document.getElementById("getyear" + (i+1)).innerHTML = dates[i].getYear();
	document.getElementById("getfullyear" + (i+1)).innerHTML = dates[i].getFullYear();
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

BTW, if you want to return a 2-digit year value (only for AD, 3, 203, 1803, 1903 and 2003 all return "03", that are the last two digits) in modern browsers, you may try:

("0"+dateObj.getFullYear().toString()).slice(-2);

References:
Date
Source Own work
Author Tomchen1989

Licensing

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
Creative Commons CC-Zero This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Category:CC-Zero#JavaScript%20getYear%20Method%20Problem.png
Category:Self-published work Category:JavaScript Category:Software bugs Category:Year 2000 problem Category:Internet Explorer
Category:CC-Zero Category:Internet Explorer Category:JavaScript Category:Self-published work Category:Software bugs Category:Year 2000 problem