Intl.Collator.prototype.compare()

The compare() method of {{jsxref("Intl.Collator")}} instances compares two strings according to the sort order of this collator object.

{{InteractiveExample("JavaScript Demo: Intl.Collator.prototype.compare()")}}

```js interactive-example 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-nolint
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 {{jsxref("Intl.Collator")}} object:

• A negative value if string1 comes before string2;
• A positive value if string1 comes after string2;
• 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 {{jsxref("Array.prototype.sort()")}}.

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:

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#

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility#

{{Compat}}

See also#

• {{jsxref("Intl.Collator")}}
• {{jsxref("String.prototype.localeCompare()")}}