How to create a new Date() in Javascript from a non-standard date format

Question

I have a date in this format: dd.mm.yyyy

When I instantiate a JavaScript date with it, it gives me a NaN

In c# I can specify a date format, to s

Answer 1

Building on CMS answer, I created this function to deal with a variable format

function parseDate(input, format) {
    format = format || 'yyyy-mm-dd'; // default format

    //Change from PHP date format to JS
    if (format == 'd/m/Y') {
      format = 'dd/mm/yyyy';
    }    
    if (format == 'd/m/Y H:i:s') {
      format = 'dd/mm/yyyy hh:ii:ss';
    }

    let date = NaN;
    if (format == 'dd/mm/yyyy') {
      let parts = input.match(/(\d+)/g),
          i = 0, fmt = {};
      // extract date-part indexes from the format
      format.replace(/(yyyy|dd|mm)/g, function(part) { fmt[part] = parts[i++]; });
      //create date for new format
      let createdDate = new Date(fmt['yyyy'], fmt['mm']-1, fmt['dd']);
      //check if dates are equal by comparing parts. The issue I had here was 
      //when I passed an invalid value for month, the output was adjustement to 
      //accomodate for the extra months
      if (
          createdDate.getFullYear() == fmt['yyyy'] && 
          createdDate.getMonth() == (fmt['mm']-1) && 
          createdDate.getDate() == fmt['dd']
      ) {
        date = createdDate;
      }
    }
    //same but taking into account hours minute and seccond
    if (format == 'dd/mm/yyyy hh:ii:ss') {
      let parts = input.match(/(\d+)/g),
          i = 0, fmt = {};

      // extract date-part indexes from the format
      format.replace(/(yyyy|dd|mm|hh|ii|ss)/g, 
      function(part) { fmt[part] = parts[i++]; });
      let createdDate = new Date(
       fmt['yyyy'], fmt['mm']-1, fmt['dd'], 
       fmt['hh'], fmt['ii'], fmt['ss']
      );
      if (
          createdDate.getFullYear() == fmt['yyyy'] && 
          createdDate.getMonth() == (fmt['mm']-1) &&
          createdDate.getDate() == fmt['dd'] && 
          createdDate.getHours() == fmt['hh'] &&
          createdDate.getMinutes() == fmt['ii'] && 
          createdDate.getSeconds() == fmt['ss']
      ) {
        date = createdDate;
      }
    }

    return date;
  }