Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global objects/String/localeCompare

The localeCompare() method returns a number indicating whether a reference string comes before, or after, or is the same as the given string in sort order.

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The new locales and options arguments let applications specify the language whose sort order should be used and customize the behavior of the function. In older implementations, which ignore the locales and options arguments, the locale and sort order used are entirely implementation-dependent.

Syntax

referenceStr.localeCompare(compareString[, locales[, options]])

Parameters

compareString

The string against which the referenceStr is compared.

locales and options

These arguments customize the behavior of the function and let applications specify the language whose formatting conventions should be used. In implementations which ignore the locales and options arguments, the locale used and the form of the string returned are entirely implementation-dependent.

See the Intl.Collator() constructor for details on these parameters and how to use them.

Return value

A negative number if referenceStr occurs before compareString; positive if the referenceStr occurs after compareString; 0 if they are equivalent.

Description

Returns an integer indicating whether the referenceStr comes before, after or is equivalent to the compareString.

• Negative when the referenceStr occurs before compareString
• Positive when the referenceStr occurs after compareString
• Returns 0 if they are equivalent

Do NOT rely on exact return values of -1 or 1!

Negative and positive integer results vary between browsers (as well as between browser versions) because the W3C specification only mandates negative and positive values. Some browsers may return -2 or 2, or even some other negative or positive value.

Performance

When comparing large numbers of strings, such as in sorting large arrays, it is better to create an Intl.Collator object and use the function provided by its compare property.

Examples

Using localeCompare()

// The letter "a" is before "c" yielding a negative value
'a'.localeCompare('c'); // -2 or -1 (or some other negative value)

// Alphabetically the word "check" comes after "against" yielding a positive value
'check'.localeCompare('against'); // 2 or 1 (or some other positive value)

// "a" and "a" are equivalent yielding a neutral value of zero
'a'.localeCompare('a'); // 0

Sort an array

localeCompare() enables case-insensitive sorting for an array.

let items = ['réservé', 'Premier', 'Cliché', 'communiqué', 'café', 'Adieu'];
items.sort( (a, b) => a.localeCompare(b, 'fr', {ignorePunctuation: true})); 
// ['Adieu', 'café', 'Cliché', 'communiqué', 'Premier', 'réservé']

Check browser support for extended arguments

The locales and options arguments are not supported in all browsers yet.

To check whether an implementation supports them, use the "i" argument (a requirement that illegal language tags are rejected) and look for a RangeError exception:

function localeCompareSupportsLocales() {
  try {
    'foo'.localeCompare('bar', 'i');
  } catch (e) {
    return e.name === 'RangeError';
  }
  return false;
}

Using locales

The results provided by localeCompare() 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:

console.log('ä'.localeCompare('z', 'de')); // a negative value: in German, ä sorts before z
console.log('ä'.localeCompare('z', 'sv')); // a positive value: in Swedish, ä sorts after z

Using options

The results provided by localeCompare() can be customized using the options argument:

// in German, ä has a as the base letter
console.log('ä'.localeCompare('a', 'de', { sensitivity: 'base' })); // 0

// in Swedish, ä and a are separate base letters
console.log('ä'.localeCompare('a', 'sv', { sensitivity: 'base' })); // a positive value

Numeric sorting

// by default, "2" > "10"
console.log("2".localeCompare("10")); // 1

// numeric using options:
console.log("2".localeCompare("10", undefined, {numeric: true})); // -1

// numeric using locales tag:
console.log("2".localeCompare("10", "en-u-kn-true")); // -1

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript (ECMA-262)The definition of 'String.prototype.localeCompare' in that specification.
ECMAScript Internationalization API (ECMA-402)The definition of 'String.prototype.localeCompare' in that specification.

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in 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
localeCompare	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5.5	Opera Full support 7	Safari Full support 3	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0	nodejs Full support 0.1.100
locales	Chrome Full support 24	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 29	IE Full support 11	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 10	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android Full support 26	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS Full support 10	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.5	nodejs Full support 13.0.0 Full support 13.0.0 Partial support 0.12 Notes' Notes' Before version 13.0.0, only the locale data for en-US is available by default. When other locales are specified, the function 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.
options	Chrome Full support 24	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 29	IE Full support 11	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 10	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android Full support 26	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS Full support 10	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.5	nodejs Full support 0.12

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

See implementation notes.'

See implementation notes.

See also

• Intl.Collator

String.prototype.localeCompare() by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.