JavaScript .getUTCMonth()

Get methods are used to retrieve date components based on the user’s local timezone settings. The .getUTCMonth() method returns the month of the date passed, similar to .getMonth(). However, .getUTCMonth() calculates the time based on the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) standard.

Syntax

const today = new Date();
const month = today.getUTCMonth();

The above example assigns the month portion of the current date Date to the variable month.

Examples

The following example demonstrates how time zones affect date calculations. It creates two Date objects with the same local time but different time zones. Using .getUTCMonth(), it logs the UTC month for each date:

const date1 = new Date('December 31, 1975, 23:15:30 GMT+11:00');
const date2 = new Date('December 31, 1975, 23:15:30 GMT-11:00');

console.log(date1.getUTCMonth());

console.log(date2.getUTCMonth());

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This results in the following output:

11
0

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Using a Specific Date and Formatting

This function also helps get the month for a specific date:

const specificDate = new Date('2023-06-15T18:45:00Z');
const specificMonth = specificDate.getUTCMonth();

console.log(`Month for June 15, 2023: ${specificMonth}`);

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The above code gives the following output:

Month for June 15, 2023: 5

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Using an Array of Dates

This example shows how to apply the .getUTCMonth() function inside a loop:

const datesArray = [
  new Date('2022-01-15T12:30:00Z'),
  new Date('2022-04-20T03:45:00Z'),
  new Date('2022-08-05T21:10:00Z'),
];

for (const date of datesArray) {
  console.log(`Month: ${date.getUTCMonth()}`);
}

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The above code gives the following output:

Month: 0
Month: 3
Month: 7

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Using the Function in Another Function

The following example helps understand how to get the month number and month name from a specified date:

function displayMonthInfo(date) {
  const month = date.getUTCMonth();
  const monthName = new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { month: 'long' }).format(
    date
  );
  console.log(`Month: ${month} (${monthName})`);
}

const sampleDate = new Date('2022-11-10T08:00:00Z');
displayMonthInfo(sampleDate);

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The above code gives the following output:

Month: 10 (November)

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