How do I change the language of moment.js?

Question

I am trying to change the language of the date which is being set by moment.js. The default one is English, but I want to set the German language. These is what I tried:

Answer 1

You need moment.lang (WARNING: lang() is deprecated since moment 2.8.0, use locale() instead):

moment.lang("de").format('LLL');

http://momentjs.com/docs/#/i18n/

---

As of v2.8.1, moment.locale('de') sets the localization, but does not return a moment. Some examples:

var march = moment('2017-03')
console.log(march.format('MMMM')) // 'March'

moment.locale('de') // returns the new locale, in this case 'de'
console.log(march.format('MMMM')) // 'March' still, since the instance was before the locale was set

var deMarch = moment('2017-03')
console.log(deMarch.format('MMMM')) // 'März'

// You can, however, change just the locale of a specific moment
march.locale('es')
console.log(march.format('MMMM')) // 'Marzo'

In summation, calling locale on the global moment sets the locale for all future moment instances, but does not return an instance of moment. Calling locale on an instance, sets it for that instance AND returns that instance.

Also, as Shiv said in the comments, make sure you use "moment-with-locales.min.js" and not "moment.min.js", otherwise it won't work.

Answer 2

for momentjs 2.12+, do the following:

moment.updateLocale('de');

Also note that you must use moment.updateLocale(localeName, config) to change an existing locale. moment.defineLocale(localeName, config) should only be used for creating a new locale.

Answer 3

end 2017 / 2018: the anothers answers have too much old code to edit, so here my alternative clean answer:

with require

let moment = require('moment');
require('moment/locale/fr.js');
// or if you want to include all locales:
require("moment/min/locales.min");

with imports

import moment from 'moment';
import 'moment/locale/fr';
// or if you want to include all locales:
require("moment/min/locales.min");

Use:

moment.locale('fr');
moment().format('D MMM YY');  // Correct, set default global format 
// moment.locale('fr').format('D MMM YY') //Wrong old versions for global default format

with timezone

*require:

require('moment-range');
require('moment-timezone');

*import:

import 'moment-range';
import 'moment-timezone';

use zones:

const newYork    = moment.tz("2014-06-01 12:00", "America/New_York");
const losAngeles = newYork.clone().tz("America/Los_Angeles");
const london     = newYork.clone().tz("Europe/London");

function to format date

const ISOtoDate = function (dateString, format='') {

 // if date is not string use conversion:
 // value.toLocaleDateString() +' '+ value.toLocaleTimeString();

  if ( !dateString ) {
    return '';
  }

  if (format ) {
    return moment(dateString).format(format);
  } else  {
    return moment(dateString);  // It will use default global format
  }  
};

Answer 4

FOR METEOR USERS:

moment locales are not installed by default in meteor, you only get the 'en' locale with the default installation.

So you use the code as shown correctly in other answers:

moment.locale('it').format('LLL');

but it will remain in english until you install the locale you need.

There is a nice, clean way of adding individual locales for moment in meteor (supplied by rzymek).

Install the moment package in the usual meteor way with:

meteor add rzymek:moment

Then just add the locales that you need, e.g. for italian:

meteor add rzymek:moment-locale-it

Or if you really want to add all available locales (adds about 30k to your page):

meteor add rzymek:moment-locales

Answer 5

After struggling, this worked for me for moment v2.26.0:

import React from "react";
import moment from "moment";
import frLocale from "moment/locale/fr";
import esLocale from "moment/locale/es";

export default function App() {
  moment.locale('fr', [frLocale, esLocale]) // can pass in 'en', 'fr', or 'es'

  let x = moment("2020-01-01 00:00:01");
  return (
    <div className="App">
      {x.format("LLL")}
      <br />
      {x.fromNow()}
    </div>
  );
}

You can pass in en, fr or es. If you wanted another language, you'd have to import the locale and add it to the array.

If you only need to support one language it is a bit simpler:

import React from "react";
import moment from "moment";
import "moment/locale/fr"; //always use French

export default function App() {  
  let x = moment("2020-01-01 00:00:01");
  return (
    <div className="App">
      {x.format("LLL")}
      <br />
      {x.fromNow()}
    </div>
  );
}

Answer 6

I am not sure what changed but importing the language file like this worked for me

import 'moment/src/locale/fr';
moment.locale('fr)

Notice the src in the import statement