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From: Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.javascript
Subject: Re: Ordering time stamp
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 13:55:21 +0100
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Andrew Poulos <ap_prog@hotmail.com> writes:

> A piece of elearning I'm working generates JSON as an array of objects
> (from a "new" standard called Tin Can). Each object has a timestamp
> property.
>
> How do I order the array from the time stamp where a time stamp looks
> like one of these:
>   timestamp: "2014-09-15T03:27:16.017Z"
>   timestamp: "2014-09-15T03:27:17.023Z"
>   timestamp: "2014-09-15T03:27:17.029Z"
>
> The standard's example js shows the generation of a time stamp with this
>
> if (this.timestamp === null) {
>   this.timestamp = TinCan.Utils.getISODateString(new Date());
> }
>
> Can I simply do something based on (for example):
>
> var x = new Date("2014-09-15T03:27:16.017Z");
> var y = new Date("2014-09-15T03:27:17.023Z");
>
> if (x > y) {
>   // x is newer
> } else {
>   // y is newer
> }

Yes, but that hides the conversion that's being done.  It may be better
to explicitly compare the times so you don't get a surprise when using
==.

  if (x.getTime() > y.getTime())

However, if the timestamps are always in the form shown (and you don't
need the Date objects for some other reason), you could just compare the
strings without making Date objects from them.

-- 
Ben.