The Date module of the DataType Utility allows you to take a `String` or a `Number` (in milliseconds) value and convert it to `Date`. If no format is provided, the `parse()` method will accept any `String` or `Number` value supported by JavaScript's `Date()` constructor.

{{>datatype-dateparse-source}}

To convert a data value to a date, simply call the `parse()` function of the Y.Date class:

``` YUI().use("datatype-date", function(Y) { var date = Y.Date.parse("Jan 7, 2003", format); // date is a JavaScript Date object }); ```

A choice of a few format specifications has been provided in the dropdown box. The date in the example above requires no format since it is natively understood by the `Date()` constructor. Alternatively, `format` could have been given as `"%b %D, %Y"`