Intl.NumberFormat

By  on  

Formatting numbers on the client side is an important task, especially when you consider how much raw API usage is in play these days. What's also important is ensuring those numbers are meaningful to users, no matter where they are in the world, especially if you're an eCommerce website.

Writing internationalization code can be a nightmare but luckily JavaScript provides us Intl.NumberFormat, an API for internationalizing numbers as currencies and more. Let's check it out!

Some examples of Intl.NumberFormat include:

new Intl.NumberFormat().format(12345)
// 12,345

new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', { maximumSignificantDigits: 4}).format(1.2345678)
// 1.235 (Notice the rounding)

new Intl.NumberFormat('en-GB', { style: 'currency', currency: 'GBP' }).format(9002.20)
// £9,002.20

new Intl.NumberFormat('de-DE', { style: 'currency', currency: 'EUR' }).format(9002.20)
// 9.002,20 €

new Intl.NumberFormat().formatToParts(12345.678)
/*
[
   { "type":"integer", "value":"12" },
   { "type":"group", "value":"," },
   { "type":"integer", "value":"345" },
   { "type":"decimal", "value":"." },
   { "type":"fraction", "value":"678" }
]
*/

Don't bother writing your own client side number formatting functions if the numbers you want to present are standard formats -- leverage the amazing APIs the browser provides you!

Recent Features

  • By
    Welcome to My New Office

    My first professional web development was at a small print shop where I sat in a windowless cubical all day. I suffered that boxed in environment for almost five years before I was able to find a remote job where I worked from home. The first...

  • By
    Create a CSS Cube

    CSS cubes really showcase what CSS has become over the years, evolving from simple color and dimension directives to a language capable of creating deep, creative visuals.  Add animation and you've got something really neat.  Unfortunately each CSS cube tutorial I've read is a bit...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Link Nudging with CSS3 Animations

    One of the more popular and simple effects I've featured on this blog over the past year has been linking nudging.  I've created this effect with three flavors of JavaScript:  MooTools, jQuery, and even the Dojo Toolkit.  Luckily CSS3 (almost) allows us to ditch...

  • By
    Flexbox Equal Height Columns

    Flexbox was supposed to be the pot of gold at the long, long rainbow of insufficient CSS layout techniques.  And the only disappointment I've experienced with flexbox is that browser vendors took so long to implement it.  I can't also claim to have pushed flexbox's limits, but...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!