The Date module of the DataType Utility allows you to take a data value and convert it to a number. The parse() method will accept any value supported by JavaScript's Date() constructor.
To convert a data value to a date, simply call the parse() function of the DataType.Date class:
YUI().use("datatype-date", function(Y) {
var date = Y.DataType.Date.parse("Jan 7, 2003");
// date is a JavaScript Date object
});
Under the hood, the data value is converted to a date via the Date() constructor:
YUI().use("datatype-date", function(Y) {
// These all return dates
var date = Y.DataType.Date.parse("December 17, 1995 03:24:00");
date = Y.DataType.Date.parse(1995,11,17);
date = Y.DataType.Date.parse(1995,11,17,3,24,0);
date = Y.DataType.Date.parse(948548583);
});