Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global objects/Intl/RelativeTimeFormat

The Intl.RelativeTimeFormat object enables language-sensitive relative time formatting.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

Constructor

Intl.RelativeTimeFormat.RelativeTimeFormat()

Creates a new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat object.

Static methods

Intl.RelativeTimeFormat.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 methods

Intl.RelativeTimeFormat.prototype.format()

Formats a value and a unit according to the locale and formatting options of the given Intl.RelativeTimeFormat object.

Intl.RelativeTimeFormat.prototype.formatToParts()

Returns an Array of objects representing the relative time format in parts that can be used for custom locale-aware formatting.

Intl.RelativeTimeFormat.prototype.resolvedOptions()

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

Examples

Basic format usage

The following example shows how to use a relative time formatter for the English language.

// Create a relative time formatter in your locale
// with default values explicitly passed in.
const rtf = new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat("en", {
    localeMatcher: "best fit", // other values: "lookup"
    numeric: "always", // other values: "auto"
    style: "long", // other values: "short" or "narrow"
});

// Format relative time using negative value (-1).
rtf.format(-1, "day");
// > "1 day ago"

// Format relative time using positive  value (1).
rtf.format(1, "day");
// > "in 1 day"

Using formatToParts

The following example shows how to create a relative time formatter returning formatted parts

const rtf = new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat("en", { numeric: "auto" });

// Format relative time using the day unit.
rtf.formatToParts(-1, "day");
// > [{ type: "literal", value: "yesterday"}]

rtf.formatToParts(100, "day");
// > [{ type: "literal", value: "in " }, 
// >  { type: "integer", value: "100", unit: "day" }, 
// >  { type: "literal", value: " days" }]

Polyfill

formatjs Intl.RelativeTimeFormat polyfill

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
ECMAScript Internationalization API (ECMA-402)The definition of 'RelativeTimeFormat' in that specification.	Stage 4

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile						Server
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	Node.js
RelativeTimeFormat	Chrome Full support 71	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 65	IE No support No	Opera Full support 58	Safari Full support 14	WebView Android Full support 71	Chrome Android Full support 71	Firefox Android Full support 65	Opera Android Full support 50	Safari iOS Full support 14	Samsung Internet Android Full support 10.0	nodejs Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Notes' Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. See the RelativeTimeFormat() constructor for more details.
RelativeTimeFormat() constructor	Chrome Full support 71	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 65	IE No support No	Opera Full support 58	Safari Full support 14	WebView Android Full support 71	Chrome Android Full support 71	Firefox Android Full support 65	Opera Android Full support 50	Safari iOS Full support 14	Samsung Internet Android Full support 10.0	nodejs Full support 13.0.0 Full support 13.0.0 Partial support 12.0.0 Notes' Notes' Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. When other locales are specified, the RelativeTimeFormat instance silently falls back to en-US. To make full ICU (locale) data available for versions prior to 13, see Node.js documentation on the --with-intl option and how to provide the data.
format	Chrome Full support 71	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 65	IE No support No	Opera Full support 58	Safari Full support 14	WebView Android Full support 71	Chrome Android Full support 71	Firefox Android Full support 65	Opera Android Full support 50	Safari iOS Full support 14	Samsung Internet Android Full support 10.0	nodejs Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Notes' Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. See the RelativeTimeFormat() constructor for more details.
formatToParts	Chrome Full support 71	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 70	IE No support No	Opera Full support 58	Safari Full support 14	WebView Android Full support 71	Chrome Android Full support 71	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android Full support 50	Safari iOS Full support 14	Samsung Internet Android Full support 10.0	nodejs Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Notes' Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. See the RelativeTimeFormat() constructor for more details.
resolvedOptions	Chrome Full support 71	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 65	IE No support No	Opera Full support 58	Safari Full support 14	WebView Android Full support 71	Chrome Android Full support 71	Firefox Android Full support 65	Opera Android Full support 50	Safari iOS Full support 14	Samsung Internet Android Full support 10.0	nodejs Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Full support 12.0.0 Notes' Notes' Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. See the RelativeTimeFormat() constructor for more details.
supportedLocalesOf	Chrome Full support 71	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 65	IE No support No	Opera Full support 58	Safari Full support 14	WebView Android Full support 71	Chrome Android Full support 71	Firefox Android Full support 65	Opera Android Full support 50	Safari iOS Full support 14	Samsung Internet Android Full support 10.0	nodejs Full support 13.0.0 Full support 13.0.0 Partial support 12.0.0 Notes' Notes' Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. To make full ICU (locale) data available for versions prior to 13, see Node.js documentation on the --with-intl option and how to provide the data.

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

See implementation notes.'

See implementation notes.

See also

• The Intl.RelativeTimeFormat API

Intl.RelativeTimeFormat by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.