Date.prototype.toLocaleTimeString()
The toLocaleTimeString()
method returns a string with a
language-sensitive representation of the time portion of the date. The newer
locales
and options
arguments let applications specify the
language formatting conventions to use. These arguments can also customize the behavior of the
function.
More dated implementations ignore the locales
and
options
arguments. In these circumstances, the form of the string returned is
entirely implementation-dependent.
Syntax
toLocaleTimeString()
toLocaleTimeString(locales)
toLocaleTimeString(locales, options)
Parameters
The locales
and options
arguments customize the behavior of
the function and let applications specify which language formatting conventions
should be used. In older implementations that ignore the locales
and
options
arguments, the locales
and the form of the string returned will be
entirely implementation-dependent.
See the Intl.DateTimeFormat()
constructor for details on these parameters and how to use them.
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.
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.
Examples
Using toLocaleTimeString()
Basic use of this method without specifying a locale
returns a formatted string in the default locale and
with default options.
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
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"
// 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"
Specifications
Specification |
---|
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-date.prototype.tolocaletimestring |
ECMAScript Internationalization API Specification # sup-date.prototype.tolocaletimestring |
Browser compatibility
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