Date.prototype.setHours()

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The setHours() method of Date instances changes the hours, minutes, seconds, and/or milliseconds for this date according to local time.

Try it

const event = new Date("August 19, 1975 23:15:30");
event.setHours(20);

console.log(event);
// Expected output: "Tue Aug 19 1975 20:15:30 GMT+0200 (CEST)"
// Note: your timezone may vary

event.setHours(20, 21, 22);

console.log(event);
// Expected output: "Tue Aug 19 1975 20:21:22 GMT+0200 (CEST)"

Syntax

js
setHours(hoursValue)
setHours(hoursValue, minutesValue)
setHours(hoursValue, minutesValue, secondsValue)
setHours(hoursValue, minutesValue, secondsValue, msValue)

Parameters

hoursValue

An integer between 0 and 23 representing the hours.

minutesValue Optional

An integer between 0 and 59 representing the minutes.

secondsValue Optional

An integer between 0 and 59 representing the seconds. If you specify secondsValue, you must also specify minutesValue.

msValue Optional

An integer between 0 and 999 representing the milliseconds. If you specify msValue, you must also specify minutesValue and secondsValue.

Changes the Date object in place, and returns its new timestamp. If a parameter is NaN (or other values that get coerced to NaN, such as undefined), the date is set to Invalid Date and NaN is returned.

Description

If you do not specify the minutesValue, secondsValue, and msValue parameters, the same values as what are returned by getMinutes(), getSeconds(), and getMilliseconds() are used.

If a parameter you specify is outside of the expected range, other parameters and the date information in the Date object are updated accordingly. For example, if you specify 100 for secondsValue, the minutes are incremented by 1 (minutesValue + 1), and 40 is used for seconds.

Because setHours() operates on the local time, crossing a Daylight Saving Time (DST) boundary may result in a different elapsed time than expected. For example, if setting the hours crosses a spring-forward transition (losing an hour), the difference in timestamps between the new and old date is one hour less than the nominal hour difference. Conversely, crossing a fall-back transition (gaining an hour) result in an extra hour. If you need to adjust the date by a fixed amount of time, consider using setUTCHours() or setTime().

If the new local time falls within an offset transition, the exact time is derived using the same behavior as Temporal's disambiguation: "compatible" option. That is, if the local time corresponds to two instants, the earlier one is chosen; if the local time does not exist (there is a gap), we go forward by the gap duration.

Examples

Using setHours()

js
const theBigDay = new Date();
theBigDay.setHours(7);

Specifications

Specification

ECMAScript® 2027 Language Specification
# sec-date.prototype.sethours

Browser compatibility

Enable JavaScript to view this browser compatibility table.

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Standard built-in objects
Date
Constructor
1. Date()
Static methods
Instance methods
Inheritance
Object/Function
Static methods
Static properties
Instance methods
Instance properties
1. __proto__
2. constructor