Locale-Sensitive JavaScript Method

date.getDay();


Internationalization (I18n) Method Overview

The getDay method returns the numeric day of the week for the date object (0 for Sunday), based on the system's local time zone.

Click here (w3schools) and here (MDN) for additional details.

I18n Issues

Whether or not calling getDay is an i18n issue is dependent on how it is being used in the application. Some possible issues are:

• The system's local time zone is being used rather than either UTC or the application's time zone.
• The returned number is being used to format a date string for display, rather than using the locale to determine the preferred date order and display.
• The day of the week is being compared against a fixed starting weekday value (for example, 0 for Sunday).

Suggested Replacement

To address the first i18n issue, call getUTCDay to use UTC time zone rather than local time zone. To set the time zone, call one of the locale-sensitive date methods:

toLocaleDateString
toLocaleString
toLocaleTimeString

These locale-sensitive date methods also address the second i18n issue: that of formatting dates based on locale.

Lastly, to support the weekday starting value based on locale, you will need to either use a 3rd party javascript calendar library or retrieve the value from a locale-sensitive resource file.

Globalyzer will detect this method and report it as an i18n issue. If you have determined that the call is being handled correctly, you can use Globalyzer's Ignore Comment functionality to ensure that it isn't picked up in a subsequent scan.