Date string conversion to unix timestamp in JavaScript / jQuery

Question

I have date string in this format:

2009-07-15 00:00:00 - 2009-07-15 08:16:23

Could anyone help me to tweak the date string to unix timestamp into something like this:

1247634000 - 1247663783

I am using GMT-5 Timezone.

What JavaScript or jQuery techniques could be used?

Answer 1

var input = "2009-07-15 00:00:00 - 2009-07-15 08:16:23";
input = input.split(" - ").map(function (date){
    return Date.parse(date+"-0500")/1000;
}).join(" - ");

Demo

Date.parse docs

Note: This won't work on old browsers since I'm using Array.map, but I think you should easily be able to shim it.