The toLocaleTimeString()
method of Date instances returns a string with a language-sensitive representation of the time portion of the date. In implementations with Intl.DateTimeFormat
API support, this method simply calls Intl.DateTimeFormat
.
When formatting large numbers of dates, it is better to create an Intl.DateTimeFormat object and use its format() method.
Syntax
toLocaleTimeString()
toLocaleTimeString(locales)
toLocaleTimeString(locales, options)
Parameters
The locales
and options
arguments customize the behavior of the function and let applications specify the language whose formatting conventions should be used.
In implementations that support the Intl.DateTimeFormat
API, these parameters correspond exactly to the Intl.DateTimeFormat()
constructor's parameters. Implementations without Intl.DateTimeFormat
support are asked to ignore both parameters, making the locale used and the form of the string returned entirely implementation-dependent.
locales
: A string with a BCP 47 language tag, or an array of such strings. Corresponds to the
locales
parameter of theIntl.DateTimeFormat()
constructor.In implementations without
Intl.DateTimeFormat
support, this parameter is ignored and the host's locale is usually used.
options
: An object adjusting the output format. Corresponds to the
options
parameter of theIntl.DateTimeFormat()
constructor. IfdayPeriod
,hour
,minute
,second
, andfractionalSecondDigits
are all undefined, thenhour
,minute
,second
will be set to"numeric"
.In implementations without
Intl.DateTimeFormat
support, this parameter is ignored.
See the Intl.DateTimeFormat()
constructor for details on these parameters and how to use them.
Return value
A string representing the time portion of the given Date instance according to language-specific conventions.
In implementations with Intl.DateTimeFormat
, this is equivalent to new Intl.DateTimeFormat(locales, options).format(date)
, where options
has been normalized as described above.
Examples
Using toLocaleTimeString()
Basic use of this method without specifying a locale
returns a formatted string in the default locale and
with default options.
const date = new Date(Date.UTC(2012, 11, 12, 3, 0, 0));
// toLocaleTimeString() without arguments depends on the implementation,
// the default locale, and the default time zone
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString());
// "7:00:00 PM" if run in en-US locale with time zone America/Los_Angeles
Checking for support for locales and options parameters
The locales
and options
parameters may not be supported in all implementations, because support for the internationalization API is optional, and some systems may not have the necessary data. For implementations without internationalization support, toLocaleTimeString()
always uses the system's locale, which may not be what you want. Because any implementation that supports the locales
and options
parameters must support the Intl API, you can check the existence of the latter for support:
function toLocaleTimeStringSupportsLocales() {
return (
typeof Intl === "object" &&
!!Intl &&
typeof Intl.DateTimeFormat === "function"
);
}
Using locales
This example shows some of the variations in localized time formats. In order to get
the format of the language used in the user interface of your application, make sure to
specify that language (and possibly some fallback languages) using the
locales
argument:
const date = new Date(Date.UTC(2012, 11, 20, 3, 0, 0));
// formats below assume the local time zone of the locale;
// America/Los_Angeles for the US
// US English uses 12-hour time with AM/PM
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString("en-US"));
// "7:00:00 PM"
// British English uses 24-hour time without AM/PM
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString("en-GB"));
// "03:00:00"
// Korean uses 12-hour time with AM/PM
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString("ko-KR"));
// "오후 12:00:00"
// Arabic in most Arabic speaking countries uses real Arabic digits
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString("ar-EG"));
// "٧:٠٠:٠٠ م"
// when requesting a language that may not be supported, such as
// Balinese, include a fallback language, in this case Indonesian
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString(["ban", "id"]));
// "11.00.00"
Using options
The results provided by toLocaleTimeString()
can be customized using the
options
argument:
const date = new Date(Date.UTC(2012, 11, 20, 3, 0, 0));
// an application may want to use UTC and make that visible
const options = { timeZone: "UTC", timeZoneName: "short" };
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString("en-US", options));
// "3:00:00 AM GMT"
// sometimes even the US needs 24-hour time
console.log(date.toLocaleTimeString("en-US", { hour12: false }));
// "19:00:00"
// show only hours and minutes, use options with the default locale - use an empty array
console.log(
date.toLocaleTimeString([], { hour: "2-digit", minute: "2-digit" }),
);
// "20:01"