Temporal.Instant.compare()

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

See full compatibility

The Temporal.Instant.compare() static method returns a number (-1, 0, or 1) indicating whether the first instant comes before, is the same as, or comes after the second instant. It is equivalent to comparing the epochNanoseconds of the two instants.

Syntax

Temporal.Instant.compare(instant1, instant2)

Parameters

instant1: A string or a Temporal.Instant instance representing the first instant to compare. It is converted to a Temporal.Instant object using the same algorithm as Temporal.Instant.from().
instant2: The second instant to compare, converted to a Temporal.Instant object using the same algorithm as instant1.

Return value

Returns -1 if instant1 comes before instant2, 0 if they are the same, and 1 if instant1 comes after instant2.

Examples

Using Temporal.Instant.compare()

const instant1 = Temporal.Instant.from("2021-08-01T12:34:56Z");
const instant2 = Temporal.Instant.from("2021-08-01T12:34:56Z");

console.log(Temporal.Instant.compare(instant1, instant2)); // 0

const instant3 = Temporal.Instant.from("2021-08-01T13:34:56Z");
console.log(Temporal.Instant.compare(instant1, instant3)); // -1

Sorting an array of instants

The purpose of this compare() function is to act as a comparator to be passed to Array.prototype.sort() and related functions.

const instants = [
  Temporal.Instant.from("2021-08-01T12:34:56Z"),
  Temporal.Instant.from("2021-08-01T12:34:56+01:00"),
  Temporal.Instant.from("2021-08-01T12:34:56-01:00"),
];

instants.sort(Temporal.Instant.compare);
console.log(instants.map((instant) => instant.toString()));
// [ '2021-08-01T11:34:56Z', '2021-08-01T12:34:56Z', '2021-08-01T13:34:56Z' ]

Specifications

Specification
Temporal # sec-temporal.instant.compare

Browser compatibility

	desktop					mobile							server
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS	Bun	Deno	Node.js
`compare`	Chrome – Full support Chrome 144 (Release date: 2026-01-13) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 144 (Release date: 2026-01-21) footnote Full support	Firefox – Full support Firefox 139 (Release date: 2025-05-27) footnote Full support	Opera – Full support Opera 128 (Release date: 2026-02-26) footnote Full support	Safari – No support Safari footnote footnote See bug 223166	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 144 (Release date: 2026-01-13) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – Full support Firefox for Android 139 (Release date: 2025-05-27) footnote Full support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 95 (Release date: 2026-02-11) footnote Full support	Safari on iOS – No support Safari on iOS footnote footnote See bug 223166	Samsung Internet – No support Samsung Internet footnote No support	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 144 (Release date: 2026-01-13) footnote Full support	WebView on iOS – No support WebView on iOS footnote footnote See bug 223166	Bun – No support Bun footnote No support	Deno – Full support Deno 2.7 (Release date: 2026-02-25) footnote Full support	Node.js – No support Node.js footnote No support

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Full support: Full support
No support: No support
: See implementation notes.

Temporal.Instant.compare()

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