SETLOCALE(3) | Library Functions Manual | SETLOCALE(3) |
setlocale
, localeconv
—
#include <locale.h>
char *
setlocale
(int
category, const char
*locale);
struct lconv *
localeconv
(void);
setlocale
() function sets the C library's notion of
natural language formatting style for particular sets of routines. Each such
style is called a ‘locale’ and is invoked using an appropriate
name passed as a C string. The localeconv
() routine
returns the current locale's parameters for formatting numbers.
The setlocale
() function recognizes
several categories of routines. These are the categories and the sets of
routines they select:
LC_ALL
LC_COLLATE
strcoll
() and
strxfrm
().LC_CTYPE
setrunelocale
() function.LC_MESSAGES
LC_MONETARY
localeconv
() function.LC_NUMERIC
printf
() and
scanf
(), as well as values returned by
localeconv
().LC_TIME
strftime
() function.Only three locales are defined by default, the empty string
""
which denotes the native environment,
and the "C"
and
"POSIX"
locales, which denote the C
language environment. A locale argument of
NULL
causes setlocale
() to
return the current locale. By default, C programs start in the
"C"
locale. The format of the locale
string is described in
nls(7).
The only function in the library that sets the locale is
setlocale
(); the locale is never changed as a side
effect of some other routine.
Changing the setting of LC_MESSAGES
has no
effect on catalogs that have already been opened by
catopen(3).
The localeconv
() function returns a
pointer to a structure which provides parameters for formatting numbers,
especially currency values:
struct lconv { char *decimal_point; char *thousands_sep; char *grouping; char *int_curr_symbol; char *currency_symbol; char *mon_decimal_point; char *mon_thousands_sep; char *mon_grouping; char *positive_sign; char *negative_sign; char int_frac_digits; char frac_digits; char p_cs_precedes; char p_sep_by_space; char n_cs_precedes; char n_sep_by_space; char p_sign_posn; char n_sign_posn; char int_p_cs_precedes; char int_n_cs_precedes; char int_p_sep_by_space; char int_n_sep_by_space; char int_p_sign_posn; char int_n_sign_posn; };
The individual fields have the following meanings:
CHAR_MAX
. If the list is terminated with 0, the
last group size before the 0 is repeated to account for all the digits. If
the list is terminated with CHAR_MAX
, no more
grouping is performed.The positional parameters in p_sign_posn, n_sign_posn, int_p_sign_posn and int_n_sign_posn are encoded as follows:
0
1
2
3
4
Unless mentioned above, an empty string as a value for a field
indicates a zero length result or a value that is not in the current locale.
A CHAR_MAX
result similarly denotes an unavailable
value.
setlocale
() function returns
NULL
and fails to change the locale if the given
combination of category and locale
makes no sense. The localeconv
() function returns a
pointer to a static object which may be altered by later calls to
setlocale
() or localeconv
().
setlocale(LC_ALL, "de"); setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "fr");
When a process is started, its current locale is set to the C or POSIX locale. An internationalized program that depends on locale data not defined in the C or POSIX locale must invoke the setlocale subroutine in the following manner before using any of the locale-specific information:
setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
setlocale
() and localeconv
()
functions conform to ANSI X3.159-1989
(“ANSI C89”) and ISO/IEC
9899:1990 (“ISO C90”).
The int_p_cs_precedes, int_n_cs_precedes, int_p_sep_by_space, int_n_sep_by_space, int_p_sign_posn and int_n_sign_posn members of struct lconv were introduced in ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (“ISO C99”).
setlocale
() and localeconv
()
functions first appeared in 4.4BSD.
"C"
and
"POSIX"
locales for all but the
LC_CTYPE
locale.
In spite of the gnarly currency support in
localeconv
(), the standards don't include any
functions for generalized currency formatting.
LC_COLLATE
does not make sense for many
languages. Use of LC_MONETARY
could lead to
misleading results until we have a real time currency conversion function.
LC_NUMERIC
and LC_TIME
are
personal choices and should not be wrapped up with the other categories.
Multibyte locales aren't supported for static binaries.
May 30, 2003 | NetBSD 9.2 |