title: How can I set the minDate/maxDate for jQueryUI Datepicker using a string?
body: <p>jQueryUI Datepicker <a href="http://jqueryui.com/demos/datepicker/#option-minDate" rel="nofollow noreferrer">documentation</a> states that the minDate option can be set using "a string in the current dateFormat". So I've tried the following to initialize datepickers:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$("input.date").datepicker({ minDate: "01/01/2010", maxDate: "12/31/2010" });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, this results in my datepicker having a selectable date range that goes from 11/06/2015 to 12/17/2015.</p>
  
  <p>I've checked the current dateformat and its <code>mm/dd/yy</code>, which is supposed to mean 2 digits for the month, 2 for the day, and 4 for the year, separated by slashes. I've also tried including <code>dateFormat: "mm/dd/yy"</code> in the inizialization statement.</p>
  
  <p>I've also checked the values for minDate and maxDate afterwards and they ARE being set to the values I want: <code>01/01/2010</code> and <code>12/31/2010</code>.</p>
  
  <p>I want to be able to set min/maxDate with strings because I'm being passed these values as strings from somewhere else. Maybe someone knows why this happens and how to solve this, or a workaround to achieve this, perphaps changing the format of the date strings or something?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
  <p>EDIT:
  Using: <strong>jQuery v1.3.2</strong> and <strong>jQuery UI v1.7.2</strong></p>