JavaScript Date toLocaleTimeString()
Syntax & Examples

Date.toLocaleTimeString() method

The toLocaleTimeString() method returns a string with a locality-sensitive representation of the time portion of this date, based on system settings.

Syntax of Date.toLocaleTimeString()

There are 3 variations for the syntax of Date.toLocaleTimeString() method. They are:

1.
toLocaleTimeString()

This method returns a string representing the time portion of this date according to the default locale and options.

Returns value of type String.

2.
toLocaleTimeString(locales)

Parameters

ParameterOptional/RequiredDescription
localesoptionalA string with a BCP 47 language tag, or an array of such strings, to specify the locale or locales.

This method returns a string representing the time portion of this date according to the specified locale.

Returns value of type String.

3.
toLocaleTimeString(locales, options)

Parameters

ParameterOptional/RequiredDescription
localesoptionalA string with a BCP 47 language tag, or an array of such strings, to specify the locale or locales.
optionsoptionalAn object with configuration options for time formatting, such as hour, minute, second, timeZoneName, etc.

This method returns a string representing the time portion of this date according to the specified locale and formatting options.

Returns value of type String.


✐ Examples

1 Using toLocaleTimeString() method with no arguments

In JavaScript, we can use the toLocaleTimeString() method to get the time portion of a date according to the default locale.

For example,

  1. Create a new Date object with the current date and time.
  2. Use the toLocaleTimeString() method with no arguments.
  3. Log the resulting string to the console using console.log().

JavaScript Program

const date = new Date();
const localeTimeString = date.toLocaleTimeString();
console.log(localeTimeString);

Output

Expected output: A string representing the time portion of the current date in the default locale format.

2 Using toLocaleTimeString() method with a locale argument

In JavaScript, we can use the toLocaleTimeString() method to get the time portion of a date in a specified locale.

For example,

  1. Create a new Date object with the current date and time.
  2. Use the toLocaleTimeString() method with the locale argument 'fr-FR' (French - France).
  3. Log the resulting string to the console using console.log().

JavaScript Program

const date = new Date();
const localeTimeString = date.toLocaleTimeString('fr-FR');
console.log(localeTimeString);

Output

Expected output: A string representing the time portion of the current date in 'fr-FR' locale format (e.g., '15:45:30').

3 Using toLocaleTimeString() method with locale and options arguments

In JavaScript, we can use the toLocaleTimeString() method to get the time portion of a date in a specified locale with specific formatting options.

For example,

  1. Create a new Date object with the current date and time.
  2. Use the toLocaleTimeString() method with the locale argument 'en-GB' (English - United Kingdom) and options for hour, minute, second, and timeZoneName.
  3. Log the resulting string to the console using console.log().

JavaScript Program

const date = new Date();
const options = { hour: '2-digit', minute: '2-digit', second: '2-digit', timeZoneName: 'short' };
const localeTimeString = date.toLocaleTimeString('en-GB', options);
console.log(localeTimeString);

Output

Expected output: A string representing the time portion of the current date in 'en-GB' locale format with specified options (e.g., '15:45:30 GMT+1').

Summary

In this JavaScript tutorial, we learned about toLocaleTimeString() method of Date: the syntax and few working examples with output and detailed explanation for each example.