Format dates for any locale

Intl.DateTimeFormat turns a Date into text for any locale and time zone. The dateStyle and timeStyle shortcuts cover most needs, and formatRange renders a span of two dates without repeating the shared parts. This example formats one fixed instant in several ways.

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All examples format the same instant, given in UTC.

const date = new Date("2026-06-11T12:00:00Z");

dateStyle picks a complete date layout for the locale. Passing an explicit timeZone makes the output independent of the machine settings.

const fullDate = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", {
  dateStyle: "full",
  timeZone: "UTC"
});

console.log(fullDate.format(date)); // Thursday, June 11, 2026

dateStyle and timeStyle combine into a single string.

const dateTime = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", {
  dateStyle: "medium",
  timeStyle: "short",
  timeZone: "UTC"
});

console.log(dateTime.format(date)); // Jun 11, 2026, 12:00 PM

Other locales bring their own month names, ordering, and punctuation.

const german = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("de-DE", {
  dateStyle: "full",
  timeZone: "UTC"
});

console.log(german.format(date)); // Donnerstag, 11. Juni 2026

const japanese = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("ja-JP", {
  dateStyle: "long",
  timeZone: "UTC"
});

console.log(japanese.format(date)); // 2026年6月11日

The timeZone option converts the instant before formatting. The same moment is morning in New York and evening in Tokyo.

const newYork = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", {
  dateStyle: "short",
  timeStyle: "long",
  timeZone: "America/New_York"
});

console.log(newYork.format(date)); // 6/11/26, 8:00:00 AM EDT

const tokyo = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", {
  dateStyle: "short",
  timeStyle: "long",
  timeZone: "Asia/Tokyo"
});

console.log(tokyo.format(date)); // 6/11/26, 9:00:00 PM GMT+9

formatRange writes a date range compactly. Shared parts like the month and year appear only once.

const range = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", {
  dateStyle: "medium",
  timeZone: "UTC"
});

const end = new Date("2026-06-15T12:00:00Z");
console.log(range.formatRange(date, end)); // Jun 11 – 15, 2026

When the range crosses a month boundary, both months are spelled out.

const longRange = new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", {
  day: "numeric",
  month: "long",
  timeZone: "UTC",
  year: "numeric"
});

const nextMonth = new Date("2026-07-02T12:00:00Z");
console.log(longRange.formatRange(date, nextMonth)); // June 11 – July 2, 2026

Temporal values format through the same machinery: toLocaleString takes the same locales and options. An Instant is the Temporal analog of a Date.

const instant = Temporal.Instant.from("2026-06-11T12:00:00Z");

console.log(
  instant.toLocaleString("en-US", {
    dateStyle: "medium",
    timeStyle: "short",
    timeZone: "UTC"
  })
); // Jun 11, 2026, 12:00 PM

A ZonedDateTime already carries its time zone, so no timeZone option is needed (or allowed).

const zoned = instant.toZonedDateTimeISO("Europe/Warsaw");

console.log(zoned.toLocaleString("de-DE", {
  dateStyle: "full",
  timeStyle: "short"
})); // Donnerstag, 11. Juni 2026 um 14:00

Run this example locally using the Ende CLI:

ende run https://docs.ende.sh/examples/scripts/intl_date_format.ts

Format dates for any locale

Additional resources