Dates and times

Learn how to manipulate time and dates in your Bun tests using setSystemTime and Jest compatibility functions

bun:test lets you change what time it is in your tests.

This works with any of the following:

Date.now
new Date()
new Intl.DateTimeFormat().format()

setSystemTime

To change the system time, use setSystemTime:

test.ts

import { setSystemTime, beforeAll, test, expect } from "bun:test";

beforeAll(() => {
  setSystemTime(new Date("2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"));
});

test("it is 2020", () => {
  expect(new Date().getFullYear()).toBe(2020);
});

Jest's useFakeTimers and useRealTimers are also supported, so existing tests that use them keep working:

test.ts

test("just like in jest", () => {
  jest.useFakeTimers();
  jest.setSystemTime(new Date("2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"));
  expect(new Date().getFullYear()).toBe(2020);
  jest.useRealTimers();
  expect(new Date().getFullYear()).toBeGreaterThan(2020);
});

test("unlike in jest", () => {
  const OriginalDate = Date;
  jest.useFakeTimers();
  if (typeof Bun === "undefined") {
    // In Jest, the Date constructor changes
    // That can cause all sorts of bugs because suddenly Date !== Date before the test.
    expect(Date).not.toBe(OriginalDate);
    expect(Date.now).not.toBe(OriginalDate.now);
  } else {
    // In bun:test, Date constructor does not change when you useFakeTimers
    expect(Date).toBe(OriginalDate);
    expect(Date.now).toBe(OriginalDate.now);
  }
});

Reset the system time

To reset the system time, pass no arguments to setSystemTime:

test.ts

import { setSystemTime, expect, test } from "bun:test";

test("it was 2020, for a moment.", () => {
  // Set it to something!
  setSystemTime(new Date("2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"));
  expect(new Date().getFullYear()).toBe(2020);

  // reset it!
  setSystemTime();

  expect(new Date().getFullYear()).toBeGreaterThan(2020);
});

Get mocked time with jest.now()

When the time is mocked (with setSystemTime or useFakeTimers), jest.now() returns the current mocked timestamp:

test.ts

import { test, expect, jest } from "bun:test";

test("get the current mocked time", () => {
  jest.useFakeTimers();
  jest.setSystemTime(new Date("2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"));

  expect(Date.now()).toBe(1577836800000); // Jan 1, 2020 timestamp
  expect(jest.now()).toBe(1577836800000); // Same value

  jest.useRealTimers();
});

Use it to read the mocked time without creating a new Date object.

Set the time zone

By default, bun test runs in UTC (Etc/UTC). To change the time zone, either pass the TZ environment variable to bun test:

terminal

$ TZ=America/Los_Angeles bun test

Or set process.env.TZ at runtime:

test.ts

import { test, expect } from "bun:test";

test("Welcome to California!", () => {
  process.env.TZ = "America/Los_Angeles";
  expect(new Date().getTimezoneOffset()).toBe(420);
  expect(new Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone).toBe("America/Los_Angeles");
});

test("Welcome to New York!", () => {
  // Unlike in Jest, you can set the timezone multiple times at runtime and it will work.
  process.env.TZ = "America/New_York";
  expect(new Date().getTimezoneOffset()).toBe(240);
  expect(new Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone).toBe("America/New_York");
});

Unlike in Jest, you can change the time zone multiple times at runtime.

setSystemTime

Reset the system time

Get mocked time with jest.now()

Set the time zone

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