The issue is that if you try to use the value programmatically to create a date, it's invalid.

...

Am I doing something wrong, or is there some other way I'm supposed to be interacting with the javascript Date?

Yes, you are doing it wrong. You shouldn't be using a function intended to format something for locale-specific human display and expect the output to be machine parsable. Any of the output of toLocaleString, toLocaleDateString, or toLocaleTimeString are meant for human-readable display only. (As Bergi clarified in comments, toString is also meant for human display, but ECMA §15.9.4.2 says it should round-trip)

You are likely getting the LTR markers because your display locale is RTL. Besides this, consider that the locale will always affect the output. Perhaps your locale uses dd/mm/yyyy formatting instead of mm/dd/yyyy formatting. Or perhaps your locale requires Asian or Arabic characters. These are all considerations when determining a display format, but are never appropriate for machine parsing.

Also consider that the ECMAScript specification does not define any particular formatting rules for the output of these methods, and different browsers will yield different results.

If the intent is anything other than to display to the user, then you should use one of these functions instead:

• toISOString will give you an ISO8601/RFC3339 formatted timestamp


• toGMTString or toUTCString will give you an RFC822/RFC1123 formatted timestamp


• getTime will give you an integer Unix Timestamp with millisecond precision

All of the above will return a UTC-based value. If you want the local time, you can either build your own string with the various accessor functions (getFullYear, getMonth, etc...), or you can use a library such as moment.js:

This uses moment.js to return an ISO8601 formatted local time + offset from a date:

moment(theDate).format()   // ex:  2014-08-14T13:32:21-07:00