Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString()

The toLocaleTimeString() method returns a string with a language sensitive representation of the time portion of this date. The new locales and options arguments let applications specify the language whose formatting conventions should be used and customize the behavior of the function. In older implementations, which ignore the locales and options arguments, the locale used and the form of the string returned are entirely implementation dependent.

Syntax

dateObj.toLocaleTimeString([locales[, options]])

Parameters

Check the Browser compatibility section to see which browsers support the locales and options arguments, and Checking for support for locales and options arguments for feature detection.

locales Optional

A string with a BCP 47 language tag, or an array of such strings. To use the browser's default locale, omit this argument or pass undefined. Unicode extension are supported (for example "en-US-u-ca-buddhist"). For the general form and interpretation of the locales argument, see the Intl page. The following Unicode extension keys are allowed:

nu
Numbering system. Possible values include: "arab", "arabext", "bali", "beng", "deva", "fullwide", "gujr", "guru", "hanidec", "khmr", "knda", "laoo", "latn", "limb", "mlym", "mong", "mymr", "orya", "tamldec", "telu", "thai", "tibt".
ca
Calendar. Possible values include: "buddhist", "chinese", "coptic", "ethiopia", "ethiopic", "gregory", "hebrew", "indian", "islamic", "iso8601", "japanese", "persian", "roc".
hc
Hour cycle. Possible values include: "h11", "h12", "h23", "h24".
options Optional

An object with some or all of the following properties:

dateStyle
The date formatting style to use when calling format(). Possible values include:
  • "full"
  • "long"
  • "medium"
  • "short"
timeStyle
The time formatting style to use when calling format(). Possible values include:
  • "full"
  • "long"
  • "medium"
  • "short"
localeMatcher
The locale matching algorithm to use. Possible values are "lookup" and "best fit"; the default is "best fit". For information about this option, see the Intl page.
timeZone
The time zone to use. The only value implementations must recognize is "UTC"; the default is the runtime's default time zone. Implementations may also recognize the time zone names of the IANA time zone database, such as "Asia/Shanghai", "Asia/Kolkata", "America/New_York".
hour12
Whether to use 12-hour time (as opposed to 24-hour time). Possible values are true and false; the default is locale dependent. This option overrides the hc language tag and/or the hourCycle option in case both are present.
hourCycle
The hour cycle to use. Possible values are "h11", "h12", "h23", or "h24". This option overrides the hc language tag, if both are present, and the hour12 option takes precedence in case both options have been specified.
formatMatcher
The format matching algorithm to use. Possible values are "basic" and "best fit"; the default is "best fit". See the following paragraphs for information about the use of this property.

The following properties describe the date-time components to use in formatted output, and their desired representations. Implementations are required to support at least the following subsets:

  • weekday, year, month, day, hour, minute, second
  • weekday, year, month, day
  • year, month, day
  • year, month
  • month, day
  • hour, minute, second
  • hour, minute

Implementations may support other subsets, and requests will be negotiated against all available subset-representation combinations to find the best match. Two algorithms are available for this negotiation and selected by the formatMatcher property: A fully specified "basic" algorithm and an implementation-dependent "best fit" algorithm.

weekday
The representation of the weekday. Possible values are:
  • "long" (e.g., Thursday)
  • "short" (e.g., Thu)
  • "narrow" (e.g., T). Two weekdays may have the same narrow style for some locales (e.g. Tuesday's narrow style is also T).
era
The representation of the era. Possible values are:
  • "long" (e.g., Anno Domini)
  • "short" (e.g., AD)
  • "narrow" (e.g., A)
year
The representation of the year. Possible values are:
  • "numeric" (e.g., 2012)
  • "2-digit" (e.g., 12)
month
The representation of the month. Possible values are:
  • "numeric" (e.g., 2)
  • "2-digit" (e.g., 02)
  • "long" (e.g., March)
  • "short" (e.g., Mar)
  • "narrow" (e.g., M). Two months may have the same narrow style for some locales (e.g. May's narrow style is also M).
day
The representation of the day. Possible values are:
  • "numeric" (e.g., 1)
  • "2-digit" (e.g., 01)
hour
The representation of the hour. Possible values are "numeric", "2-digit".
minute
The representation of the minute. Possible values are "numeric", "2-digit".
second
The representation of the second. Possible values are "numeric", "2-digit".
timeZoneName
The representation of the time zone name. Possible values are:
  • "long" (e.g., British Summer Time)
  • "short" (e.g., GMT+1)

The default value for each date-time component property is undefined, but if the hour, minute, second properties are all undefined, then hour, minute, and second are assumed to be "numeric".

Return value

A string representing the time portion of the given Date instance according to language-specific conventions.

Examples

Using toLocaleTimeString()

In basic use without specifying a locale, a formatted string in the default locale and with default options is returned.

var 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 arguments

The locales and options arguments are not supported in all browsers yet. To check whether an implementation supports them already, you can use the requirement that illegal language tags are rejected with a RangeError exception:

function toLocaleTimeStringSupportsLocales() {
  try {
    new Date().toLocaleTimeString('i');
  } catch (e) {
    return e​.name === 'RangeError';
  }
  return false;
}

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:

var 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:

var date = new Date(Date.UTC(2012, 11, 20, 3, 0, 0));

// an application may want to use UTC and make that visible
var 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"

Performance

When formatting large numbers of dates, it is better to create an Intl.DateTimeFormat object and use the function provided by its format property.

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
ECMAScript 3rd Edition (ECMA-262) Standard Initial definition. Implemented in JavaScript 1.0.
ECMAScript 5.1 (ECMA-262)
The definition of 'Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString' in that specification.		 Standard  
ECMAScript 2015 (6th Edition, ECMA-262)
The definition of 'Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString' in that specification.		 Standard  
ECMAScript Latest Draft (ECMA-262)
The definition of 'Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString' in that specification.		 Draft  
ECMAScript Internationalization API 1.0 (ECMA-402)
The definition of 'Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString' in that specification.		 Standard Defines locales and options arguments.
ECMAScript Internationalization API 2.0 (ECMA-402)
The definition of 'Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString' in that specification.		 Standard  
ECMAScript Internationalization API 4.0 (ECMA-402)
The definition of 'Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString' in that specification.		 Draft  

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub
DesktopMobileServer
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung InternetNode.js
toLocaleTimeStringChrome Full support YesEdge Full support 12Firefox Full support 1IE Full support YesOpera Full support YesSafari Full support YesWebView Android Full support YesChrome Android Full support YesFirefox Android Full support 4Opera Android Full support YesSafari iOS Full support YesSamsung Internet Android Full support Yesnodejs ?
IANA time zone names in timeZone optionChrome Full support 24Edge Full support 14Firefox Full support 52IE ? Opera Full support 15Safari ? WebView Android Full support 37Chrome Android Full support 25Firefox Android No support NoOpera Android ? Safari iOS ? Samsung Internet Android Full support Yesnodejs ?
localesChrome Full support 24Edge Full support 12Firefox Full support 29IE Full support 11Opera Full support 15Safari Full support 10WebView Android No support NoChrome Android Full support 26Firefox Android Full support 56Opera Android No support NoSafari iOS Full support 10Samsung Internet Android Full support Yesnodejs ?
optionsChrome Full support 24Edge Full support 12Firefox Full support 29IE Full support 11Opera Full support 15Safari Full support 10WebView Android No support NoChrome Android Full support 26Firefox Android Full support 56Opera Android No support NoSafari iOS Full support 10Samsung Internet Android Full support Yesnodejs ?

Legend

Full support  
Full support
No support  
No support
Compatibility unknown  
Compatibility unknown

See also

Related Topics
  1. Standard built-in objects
  2. Date
  3. Properties
    1. Date.prototype
  4. Methods
    1. Date.UTC()
    2. Date.now()
    3. Date.parse()
    4. Date.prototype.getDate()
    5. Date.prototype.getDay()
    6. Date.prototype.getFullYear()
    7. Date.prototype.getHours()
    8. Date.prototype.getMilliseconds()
    9. Date.prototype.getMinutes()
    10. Date.prototype.getMonth()
    11. Date.prototype.getSeconds()
    12. Date.prototype.getTime()
    13. Date.prototype.getTimezoneOffset()
    14. Date.prototype.getUTCDate()
    15. Date.prototype.getUTCDay()
    16. Date.prototype.getUTCFullYear()
    17. Date.prototype.getUTCHours()
    18. Date.prototype.getUTCMilliseconds()
    19. Date.prototype.getUTCMinutes()
    20. Date.prototype.getUTCMonth()
    21. Date.prototype.getUTCSeconds()
    22. Date.prototype.getYear()
    23. Date.prototype.setDate()
    24. Date.prototype.setFullYear()
    25. Date.prototype.setHours()
    26. Date.prototype.setMilliseconds()
    27. Date.prototype.setMinutes()
    28. Date.prototype.setMonth()
    29. Date.prototype.setSeconds()
    30. Date.prototype.setTime()
    31. Date.prototype.setUTCDate()
    32. Date.prototype.setUTCFullYear()
    33. Date.prototype.setUTCHours()
    34. Date.prototype.setUTCMilliseconds()
    35. Date.prototype.setUTCMinutes()
    36. Date.prototype.setUTCMonth()
    37. Date.prototype.setUTCSeconds()
    38. Date.prototype.setYear()
    39. Date.prototype.toDateString()
    40. Date.prototype.toGMTString()
    41. Date.prototype.toISOString()
    42. Date.prototype.toJSON()
    43. Date.prototype.toLocaleDateString()
    44. Date.prototype.toLocaleFormat()
    45. Date.prototype.toLocaleString()
    46. Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString()
    47. Date.prototype.toSource()
    48. Date.prototype.toString()
    49. Date.prototype.toTimeString()
    50. Date.prototype.toUTCString()
    51. Date.prototype.valueOf()
    52. Date.prototype[@@toPrimitive]
  5. Inheritance:
  6. Function
  7. Properties
    1. Function.arguments
    2. Function.arity
    3. Function.caller
    4. Function.displayName
    5. Function.length
    6. Function.name
    7. Function.prototype
  8. Methods
    1. Function.prototype.apply()
    2. Function.prototype.bind()
    3. Function.prototype.call()
    4. Function.prototype.isGenerator()
    5. Function.prototype.toSource()
    6. Function.prototype.toString()
  9. Object
  10. Properties
    1. Object.prototype.__count__
    2. Object.prototype.__noSuchMethod__
    3. Object.prototype.__parent__
    4. Object.prototype.__proto__
    5. Object.prototype.constructor
  11. Methods
    1. Object.prototype.__defineGetter__()
    2. Object.prototype.__defineSetter__()
    3. Object.prototype.__lookupGetter__()
    4. Object.prototype.__lookupSetter__()
    5. Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty()
    6. Object.prototype.isPrototypeOf()
    7. Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable()
    8. Object.prototype.toLocaleString()
    9. Object.prototype.toSource()
    10. Object.prototype.toString()
    11. Object.prototype.unwatch()
    12. Object.prototype.valueOf()
    13. Object.prototype.watch()
    14. Object.setPrototypeOf()