Internationalization

The Intl object is the namespace for the ECMAScript Internationalization API, which provides a wide range of locale- and culture-sensitive data and operations.

Date and time formatting

The Intl.DateTimeFormat object is useful for formatting date and time. The following formats a date for English as used in the United States. (The result is different in another time zone.)

js
// July 17, 2014 00:00:00 UTC:
const july172014 = new Date("2014-07-17");

const options = {
  year: "2-digit",
  month: "2-digit",
  day: "2-digit",
  hour: "2-digit",
  minute: "2-digit",
  timeZoneName: "short",
};
const americanDateTime = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", options).format;

// Local timezone vary depending on your settings
// In CEST, logs: 07/17/14, 02:00 AM GMT+2
// In PDT, logs: 07/16/14, 05:00 PM GMT-7
console.log(americanDateTime(july172014));

Number formatting

The Intl.NumberFormat object is useful for formatting numbers, for example currencies.

js
const gasPrice = new Intl.NumberFormat("en-US", {
  style: "currency",
  currency: "USD",
  minimumFractionDigits: 3,
});

console.log(gasPrice.format(5.259)); // $5.259

const hanDecimalRMBInChina = new Intl.NumberFormat("zh-CN-u-nu-hanidec", {
  style: "currency",
  currency: "CNY",
});

console.log(hanDecimalRMBInChina.format(1314.25)); // ￥ 一,三一四.二五

Collation

The Intl.Collator object is useful for comparing and sorting strings.

For example, there are actually two different sort orders in German, phonebook and dictionary. Phonebook sort emphasizes sound, and it's as if "ä", "ö", and so on were expanded to "ae", "oe", and so on prior to sorting.

js
const names = ["Hochberg", "Hönigswald", "Holzman"];

const germanPhonebook = new Intl.Collator("de-DE-u-co-phonebk");

// as if sorting ["Hochberg", "Hoenigswald", "Holzman"]:
console.log(names.sort(germanPhonebook.compare).join(", "));
// "Hochberg, Hönigswald, Holzman"

Some German words conjugate with extra umlauts, so in dictionaries it's sensible to order ignoring umlauts (except when ordering words differing only by umlauts: schon before schön).

js
const germanDictionary = new Intl.Collator("de-DE-u-co-dict");

// as if sorting ["Hochberg", "Honigswald", "Holzman"]:
console.log(names.sort(germanDictionary.compare).join(", "));
// "Hochberg, Holzman, Hönigswald"

For more information about the Intl API, see also Introducing the JavaScript Internationalization API.