Arabic and Hebrew RTL Number Formatting with Intl

RTL Number Formatting: Arabic and Hebrew

Right-to-left locales present unique challenges for number formatting. While Arabic text reads right-to-left, numbers can read left-to-right or use Eastern Arabic digits. Hebrew uses standard Western digits but with RTL text context.

Eastern Arabic Numerals

Arabic locales may use Eastern Arabic-Indic digits:

new Intl.NumberFormat('ar-SA').format(1234567.89);
// "١٬٢٣٤٬٥٦٧٫٨٩"

new Intl.NumberFormat('ar-EG').format(1234567.89);
// "١٬٢٣٤٬٥٦٧٫٨٩"

The digit mapping:

Western	Eastern Arabic
0	٠
1	١
2	٢
3	٣
4	٤
5	٥
6	٦
7	٧
8	٨
9	٩

Arabic Currency Formatting

new Intl.NumberFormat('ar-SA', {
  style: 'currency',
  currency: 'SAR',
}).format(1234.5);
// "‏١٬٢٣٤٫٥٠ ر.س.‏"

new Intl.NumberFormat('ar-SA', {
  style: 'currency',
  currency: 'USD',
}).format(1234.5);
// "‏١٬٢سش٫٥٠ US$"

Hebrew Formatting

Hebrew uses standard Western digits but places text elements (currency symbols, unit labels) according to RTL rules:

new Intl.NumberFormat('he-IL').format(1234567.89);
// "1,234,567.89"

new Intl.NumberFormat('he-IL', {
  style: 'currency',
  currency: 'ILS',
}).format(1234.5);
// "‏1,234.50 ₪"

Bidirectional Text Challenges

When embedding RTL-formatted numbers in HTML, use the dir attribute:

<span dir="auto">‏١٬٢٣٤٫٥٠ ر.س.‏</span>

Date Formatting in RTL

new Intl.DateTimeFormat('ar-SA', { dateStyle: 'full' })
  .format(new Date('2025-03-15'));
// Arabic text with Hijri calendar, RTL layout

new Intl.DateTimeFormat('he-IL', { dateStyle: 'full' })
  .format(new Date('2025-03-15'));
// Hebrew weekday and month names, Western digits

Forcing Western Digits in Arabic

Some applications need Arabic text with Western (Latin) digits:

new Intl.NumberFormat('ar-SA-u-nu-latn').format(1234567.89);
// "1,234,567.89" (Latin digits with Arabic formatting rules)

The -u-nu-latn Unicode extension forces Latin digit rendering.