new Date from ISO String code example

Example 1: js string to date

var myDate = new Date("2013/1/16");

var str = "2013/1/16";
var strToDate = new Date(str);

Example 2: how to validate from and to date using date.parse in javascript

var stringval = '01/03/2012';
var testdate;

try {
  testdate = $.datepicker.parseDate('mm/dd/yy', stringval);
             // Notice 'yy' indicates a 4-digit year value
} catch (e)
{
 alert(stringval + ' is not valid.  Format must be MM/DD/YYYY ' +
       'and the date value must be valid for the calendar.';
}