[date] Formatting a Date String in React Native

function getParsedDate(date){
  date = String(date).split(' ');
  var days = String(date[0]).split('-');
  var hours = String(date[1]).split(':');
  return [parseInt(days[0]), parseInt(days[1])-1, parseInt(days[2]), parseInt(hours[0]), parseInt(hours[1]), parseInt(hours[2])];
}
var date = new Date(...getParsedDate('2016-01-04 10:34:23'));
console.log(date);

Because of the variances in parsing of date strings, it is recommended to always manually parse strings as results are inconsistent, especially across different ECMAScript implementations where strings like "2015-10-12 12:00:00" may be parsed to as NaN, UTC or local timezone.

... as described in the resource:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/parse