Question: I have this code that I want to check if a date is in the past. I want to check it as soon as the date is entered, before form submission.

```
<input id="datepicker" onchange="checkDate()" required class="datepicker-input" type="text" data-date-format="yyyy-mm-dd" >

<script type="text/javascript">
 function checkDate() {
   var selectedDate = document.getElementById('datepicker').value;
   var now = new Date();
   if (selectedDate < now) {
    alert("Date must be in the future");
   }
 }
</script>

```

This does not work, if I enter a date in the past (e.g. 2014-12-03) it does not display the alert.

Answer: 
For those who use type="date" (introduced with HTML5) instead of type="text", it can be done this way:

```
 function checkDate() {
   var date = this.value;
   if(date.valueAsDate <= new Date()) {
       //Date in the past
   } else {
       //Date in the future
   }
}

```
Your code is really close, try this instead:

```
var selectedDate = $('#datepicker').datepicker('getDate');
var now = new Date();
if (selectedDate < now) {
  // selected date is in the past
}

```