W3cubDocs

/JavaScript

Intl.Collator

The Intl.Collator object enables language-sensitive string comparison.

Try it

Constructor

Intl.Collator()

Creates a new Collator object.

Static methods

Intl.Collator.supportedLocalesOf()

Returns an array containing those of the provided locales that are supported without having to fall back to the runtime's default locale.

Instance properties

These properties are defined on Intl.Collator.prototype and shared by all Intl.Collator instances.

Intl.Collator.prototype.constructor

The constructor function that created the instance object. For Intl.Collator instances, the initial value is the Intl.Collator constructor.

Intl.Collator.prototype[@@toStringTag]

The initial value of the @@toStringTag property is the string "Intl.Collator". This property is used in Object.prototype.toString().

Instance methods

Intl.Collator.prototype.compare()

Getter function that compares two strings according to the sort order of this Intl.Collator object.

Intl.Collator.prototype.resolvedOptions()

Returns a new object with properties reflecting the locale and collation options computed during initialization of the object.

Examples

Using Collator

The following example demonstrates the different potential results for a string occurring before, after, or at the same level as another:

js
console.log(new Intl.Collator().compare("a", "c")); // -1, or some other negative value
console.log(new Intl.Collator().compare("c", "a")); // 1, or some other positive value
console.log(new Intl.Collator().compare("a", "a")); // 0

Note that the results shown in the code above can vary between browsers and browser versions. This is because the values are implementation-specific. That is, the specification requires only that the before and after values are negative and positive.

Using locales

The results provided by Intl.Collator.prototype.compare() vary between languages. In order to get the sort order 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:

js
// in German, ä sorts with a
console.log(new Intl.Collator("de").compare("ä", "z"));
// -1, or some other negative value

// in Swedish, ä sorts after z
console.log(new Intl.Collator("sv").compare("ä", "z"));
// 1, or some other positive value

Using options

The results provided by Intl.Collator.prototype.compare() can be customized using the options argument:

js
// in German, ä has a as the base letter
console.log(new Intl.Collator("de", { sensitivity: "base" }).compare("ä", "a"));
// 0

// in Swedish, ä and a are separate base letters
console.log(new Intl.Collator("sv", { sensitivity: "base" }).compare("ä", "a"));
// 1, or some other positive value

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile Server
Chrome Edge Firefox Opera Safari Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet WebView Android Deno Node.js
Collator 24 12 29 15 10 25 56 14 10 1.5 4.4 1.8 13.0.0
0.12.0Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. When other locales are specified, the Collator instance silently falls back to en-US. To make full ICU (locale) data available before version 13, see Node.js documentation on the --with-intl option and how to provide the data.
Collator 24 12 29 15 10 25 56 14 10 1.5 4.4 1.8
0.12.0Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. See the Collator() constructor for more details.
compare 24 12 29 15 10 25 56 14 10 1.5 4.4 1.8
0.12.0Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. See the Collator() constructor for more details.
resolvedOptions 24 12 29 15 10 25 56 14 10 1.5 4.4 1.8
0.12.0Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. See the Collator() constructor for more details.
supportedLocalesOf 24 12 29 15 10 25 56 14 10 1.5 4.4 1.8 13.0.0
0.12.0Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. To make full ICU (locale) data available before version 13, see Node.js documentation on the --with-intl option and how to provide the data.

See also

© 2005–2023 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/Collator