**Question in brief:**

What is the easiest way to convert `date-month-year hour(24):minute` to `timestamp`? 

*due to more views add clear question on the top, so that no need to go through background & all if need quick help.*

---

**Background :** 

I have a simple html table and I used [jquery sorter](http://tablesorter.com/docs/) to sort my table columns.

Everything is working fine except a date column which is having following format of data,

```
17-09-2013 10:08
date-month-year hour(24):minute

```

This column is sorting(alphabetically) but not as I expected(date wise). I tried to use a custom parser as follows,

```
$.tablesorter.addParser({ 
    id: 'date_column',  // my column ID
    is: function(s) { 
        return false; 
    }, 
    format: function(s) { 
        var timeInMillis = new Date.parse(s);
        return timeInMillis;         
    }, 
    type: 'numeric' 
}); 

```

**Problem :**
it fails due to `new Date.parse(s)` . 

**Question :**
what is the easiest way to convert `date-month-year hour(24):minute` to timestamp? then I can skip `var timeInMillis = new Date.parse(s);` line.

Thanks

**Edited :**

Sorry about the confusion about `milliseconds`, actually it should be the `timestamp` which is a number that represents the current time and date.