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Intl.DateTimeFormat.prototype.format()

The format() method of Intl.DateTimeFormat instances formats a date according to the locale and formatting options of this Intl.DateTimeFormat object.

Try it

Syntax

format(date)

Parameters

date: The date to format.

Return value

A string representing the given date formatted according to the locale and formatting options of this Intl.DateTimeFormat object.

Examples

Using format

Use the format getter function for formatting a single date, here for Serbia:

const options = {
  weekday: "long",
  year: "numeric",
  month: "long",
  day: "numeric",
};
const dateTimeFormat = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("sr-RS", options);
console.log(dateTimeFormat.format(new Date()));
// "недеља, 7. април 2013."

Using format with map

Use the format getter function for formatting all dates in an array. Note that the function is bound to the Intl.DateTimeFormat from which it was obtained, so it can be passed directly to Array.prototype.map().

const a = [new Date(2012, 8), new Date(2012, 11), new Date(2012, 3)];
const options = { year: "numeric", month: "long" };
const dateTimeFormat = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("pt-BR", options);
const formatted = a.map(dateTimeFormat.format);
console.log(formatted.join("; "));
// "setembro de 2012; dezembro de 2012; abril de 2012"

Avoid comparing formatted date values to static values

Most of the time, the formatting returned by format() is consistent. However, this might change in the future and isn't guaranteed for all the languages — output variations are by design and allowed by the specification. Most notably, the IE and Edge browsers insert bidirectional control characters around dates, so the output text will flow properly when concatenated with other text.

For this reason you cannot expect to be able to compare the results of format() to a static value:

let d = new Date("2019-01-01T00:00:00.000000Z");
let formattedDate = Intl.DateTimeFormat(undefined, {
  year: "numeric",
  month: "numeric",
  day: "numeric",
  hour: "numeric",
  minute: "numeric",
  second: "numeric",
}).format(d);

"1.1.2019, 01:00:00" === formattedDate;
// true in Firefox and others
// false in IE and Edge

Note: See also this StackOverflow thread for more details and examples.

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Internationalization API Specification # sec-intl.datetimeformat.prototype.format

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
`format`	24	12	29	15	10	25	56	14	10	1.5	4.4	1.8	0.12.0 Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for `en-US` is available by default. See the `DateTimeFormat()` constructor for more details.