Intl.Collator.prototype.compare()
Baseline
Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2017.
The compare() method of Intl.Collator instances compares two
strings according to the sort order of this collator object.
Try it
const enCollator = new Intl.Collator("en");
const deCollator = new Intl.Collator("de");
const svCollator = new Intl.Collator("sv");
console.log(enCollator.compare("z", "a") > 0);
// Expected output: true
console.log(deCollator.compare("z", "ä") > 0);
// Expected output: true
console.log(svCollator.compare("z", "ä") > 0);
// Expected output: false
Syntax
js
compare(string1, string2)
Parameters
string1,string2-
The strings to compare against each other.
Return value
A number indicating how string1 and string2 compare to each other according to the sort order of this Intl.Collator object:
- A negative value if
string1comes beforestring2; - A positive value if
string1comes afterstring2; - 0 if they are considered equal.
Examples
Using compare for array sort
Use the compare function for sorting arrays. Note that the function
is bound to the collator from which it was obtained, so it can be passed directly to
Array.prototype.sort().
js
const a = ["Offenbach", "Österreich", "Odenwald"];
const collator = new Intl.Collator("de-u-co-phonebk");
a.sort(collator.compare);
console.log(a.join(", ")); // "Odenwald, Österreich, Offenbach"
Using compare for array search
Use the compare function for finding matching strings in arrays:
js
const a = ["Congrès", "congres", "Assemblée", "poisson"];
const collator = new Intl.Collator("fr", {
usage: "search",
sensitivity: "base",
});
const s = "congres";
const matches = a.filter((v) => collator.compare(v, s) === 0);
console.log(matches.join(", ")); // "Congrès, congres"
Specifications
| Specification |
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| ECMAScript® 2027 Internationalization API Specification # sec-intl.collator.prototype.compare |
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Legend
Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.
- Full support
- Full support
- See implementation notes.