const timeFormat = "15 Monday January 2006"

func ParseDate(s string) (time.Time, error) {
    t, err := time.Parse(timeFormat, s)
    if err != nil {
        // time.Time{} returns January 1, year 1, 00:00:00.000000000 UTC
        // which according to the source code is the zero value for time.Time
        // https://golang.org/src/time/time.go#L23
        return time.Time{}, err
    }
    return t, nil
}

If you have a date stored as a string you will need to parse it. Use time.Parse.

//           time.Parse(   format   , date to parse)
date, err := time.Parse("01/02/2006",  "04/08/2017")
if err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

fmt.Println(date)
// Prints 2017-04-08 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

The first parameter is the layout in which the string stores the date and the second parameter is the string that contains the date. 01/02/2006 is the same than saying the format is MM/DD/YYYY.

The layout defines the format by showing how the reference time, defined to be Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 -0700 MST 2006 would be interpreted if it were the value; it serves as an example of the input format. The same interpretation will then be made to the input string.

You can see the constants defined in the time package to know how to write the layout string, but note that the constants are not exported and can't be used outside the time package.

const (
    stdLongMonth             // "January"
    stdMonth                 // "Jan"
    stdNumMonth              // "1"
    stdZeroMonth             // "01"
    stdLongWeekDay           // "Monday"
    stdWeekDay               // "Mon"
    stdDay                   // "2"
    stdUnderDay              // "_2"
    stdZeroDay               // "02"
    stdHour                  // "15"
    stdHour12                // "3"
    stdZeroHour12            // "03"
    stdMinute                // "4"
    stdZeroMinute            // "04"
    stdSecond                // "5"
    stdZeroSecond            // "05"
    stdLongYear              // "2006"
    stdYear                  // "06"
    stdPM                    // "PM"
    stdpm                    // "pm"
    stdTZ                    // "MST"
    stdISO8601TZ             // "Z0700"  // prints Z for UTC
    stdISO8601SecondsTZ      // "Z070000"
    stdISO8601ShortTZ        // "Z07"
    stdISO8601ColonTZ        // "Z07:00" // prints Z for UTC
    stdISO8601ColonSecondsTZ // "Z07:00:00"
    stdNumTZ                 // "-0700"  // always numeric
    stdNumSecondsTz          // "-070000"
    stdNumShortTZ            // "-07"    // always numeric
    stdNumColonTZ            // "-07:00" // always numeric
    stdNumColonSecondsTZ     // "-07:00:00"
)

Sometime you will need to know, with 2 dates objects, if there are corresponding to the same date, or find which date is after the other.

In Go, there is 4 way to compare dates:

• date1 == date2, returns true when the 2 are the same moment
• date1 != date2, returns true when the 2 are different moment
• date1.Before(date2), returns true when the first is strictly before the second
• date1.After(date2), returns true when the first is strictly after the second

WARNING: When the 2 Time to compare are the same (or correspond to the exact same date), functions After and Before will return false, as a date is neither before nor after itself

• date1 == date1, returns true
• date1 != date1, returns false
• date1.After(date1), returns false
• date1.Before(date1), returns false

TIPS: If you need to know if a date is before or equal another one, just need to combine the 4 operators

• date1 == date2 && date1.After(date2), returns true when date1 is after or equal date2
  or using ! (date1.Before(date2))
• date1 == date2 && date1.Before(date2), returns true when date1 is before or equal date2 or using !(date1.After(date2))

Some examples to see how to use:

// Init 2 dates for example
var date1 = time.Date(2009, time.November, 10, 23, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
var date2 = time.Date(2017, time.July, 25, 16, 22, 42, 123, time.UTC)
var date3 = time.Date(2017, time.July, 25, 16, 22, 42, 123, time.UTC)

bool1 := date1.Before(date2) // true, because date1 is before date2
bool2 := date1.After(date2) // false, because date1 is not after date2

bool3 := date2.Before(date1) // false, because date2 is not before date1
bool4 := date2.After(date1) // true, because date2 is after date1

bool5 := date1 == date2 // false, not the same moment
bool6 := date1 == date3 // true, different objects but representing the exact same time

bool7 := date1 != date2 // true, different moments
bool8 := date1 != date3 // false, not different moments

bool9 := date1.After(date3) // false, because date1 is not after date3 (that are the same)
bool10:= date1.Before(date3) // false, because date1 is not before date3 (that are the same)

bool11 := !(date1.Before(date3)) // true, because date1 is not before date3
bool12 := !(date1.After(date3)) // true, because date1 is not after date3