Locale (computer software)

These settings usually include the following display (output) format settings:

• Number format setting (LC_NUMERIC, C/C++)
• Character classification, case conversion settings (LC_CTYPE, C/C++)
• Date-time format setting (LC_TIME, C/C++)
• String collation setting (LC_COLLATE, C/C++)
• Currency format setting (LC_MONETARY, C/C++)
• Paper size setting (LC_PAPER, ISO 30112)
• Color temperature setting
• UI font setting (especially for CJKV language)
• Location setting (country or region)
• ANSI character set setting (for Microsoft Windows)

The locale settings are about formatting output given a locale. So, the time zone information and daylight saving time are not usually part of the locale settings.

Less usual is the input format setting, which is mostly defined on a per application basis.

In these environments,

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• C
• C++
• Eiffel
• Java
• .NET Framework
• REBOL
• Ruby
• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• XML
• JSP
• JavaScript

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and other (nowadays) Unicode-based environments, they are defined in a format similar to BCP 47. They are usually defined with just ISO 639 (language) and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (2-letter country) codes.

In standard C and C++, locale is defined in "categories" of {{tt|LC_COLLATE}} (text collation), {{tt|LC_CTYPE}} (character class), {{tt|LC_MONETARY}} (currency format), {{tt|LC_NUMERIC}} (number format), and {{tt|LC_TIME}} (time format). The special {{tt|LC_ALL}} category can be used to set all locale settings.{{cite web |title=LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC, LC_TIME - cppreference.com |url=https://en.cppreference.com/w/c/locale/LC_categories |website=en.cppreference.com}}

There is no standard locale names associated with C and C++ standards besides a "minimal locale" name "C", although the POSIX format is a commonly-used baseline.

On POSIX platforms such as Unix, Linux and others, locale identifiers are defined in a way similar to the BCP 47 definition of language tags, but the locale variant modifier is defined differently, and the character set is optionally included as a part of the identifier. The POSIX or "XPG" format is {{mono|[language[_territory][.codeset][@modifier]]}}. (For example, Australian English using the UTF-8 encoding is {{mono|en_AU.UTF-8}}.){{cite web |title=Environment Variables |url=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap08.html |website=pubs.opengroup.org}} Separately, ISO/IEC 15897 describes a different form, {{mono|language_territory+audience+application,sponsor_version}}, though it's highly dubious whether it is used at all.{{cite web |title=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 N610 [draft ISO/IEC 15897:1998(E)] Information technology — Procedures for registration of cultural elements |url=https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg20/docs/n610.pdf |access-date=8 June 2023 |date=1998-11-17|quote=For Narrative Cultural Specifications and POSIX Locales the token identifier will be: 8_9+11+12,13_14}}

In the next example there is an output of command locale for Czech language (cs), Czech Republic (CZ) with explicit UTF-8 encoding:

$ locale

LANG=cs_CZ.UTF-8

LC_CTYPE="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_NUMERIC="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_TIME="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_COLLATE="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_MONETARY="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_MESSAGES="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_PAPER="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_NAME="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_ADDRESS="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_TELEPHONE="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_MEASUREMENT="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_IDENTIFICATION="cs_CZ.UTF-8"

LC_ALL=

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Windows uses specific [https://web.archive.org/web/20170228045725/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/39cwe7zf(vs.71).aspx language] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20160610104759/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cdax410z(VS.71).aspx territory] strings.

The locale identifier (LCID) for unmanaged code on Microsoft Windows is a number such as 1033 for English (United States), or 2057 for English (United Kingdom), or 1041 for Japanese (Japan). These numbers consist of a language code (lower 10 bits) and a culture code (upper bits), and are therefore often written in hexadecimal notation, such as 0x0409, 0x0809 or 0x0411.

Microsoft is starting to introduce managed code application programming interfaces (APIs) for .NET that use this format. One of the first to be generally released is a function to mitigate issues with internationalized domain names,{{cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/dd317795.aspx |title=DownlevelGetLocaleScripts function (Windows) |work=MSDN |publisher=Microsoft |accessdate=2017-12-11}} but more are in Windows Vista Beta 1.

Starting with Windows Vista, new functions{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/intl/locale-names |title=Locale Names (Windows) |work=MSDN |publisher=Microsoft |accessdate=2017-12-11}} that use BCP 47 locale names have been introduced to replace nearly all LCID-based APIs.

A POSIX-like locale name format of {{mono|language[_country-region[.code-page]]}} is available in the UCRT (Universal C Run Time) of Windows 10 and 11.{{cite web |title=Locale Names, Languages, and Country-Region Strings |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-runtime-library/locale-names-languages-and-country-region-strings?view=msvc-140 |website=learn.microsoft.com |language=en-us |date=19 October 2022}}

• Internationalization and localization
• ISO 639 language codes
• ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 region codes
• ISO 15924 script codes
• IETF language tag
• C localization functions
• CCSID
• Code page
• Common Locale Data Repository
• Date and time representation by country
• AppLocale

{{Reflist}}

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{{wiktionary|locale}}

• [http://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp47 BCP 47]
• [https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry Language Subtag Registry]
• [https://www.unicode.org/cldr/ Common Locale Data Repository]
• {{Javadoc:SE|package=java.util|java/util|Locale}} Javadoc API documentation
• [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd318716 Locale and Language information from Microsoft]
• [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc233965.aspx MS-LCID: Windows Language Code Identifier (LCID) Reference from Microsoft]
• [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc233968.aspx Microsoft LCID list]
• [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0h88fahh.aspx Microsoft LCID chart with decimal equivalents]
• [http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/xbd/envvar.html POSIX Environment Variables]
• [http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap07.html Low Level Technical details on defining a POSIX locale]
• [http://demo.icu-project.org/icu-bin/locexp ICU Locale Explorer]
• [http://wiki.debian.org/Locale Debian Wiki on Locales]
• Article "[http://cantrip.org/locale.html The Standard C++ Locale]" by Nathan C. Myers
• [http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man7/locale.7.html locale(7): Description of multi-language support] - Linux man page
• [http://incubator.apache.org/stdcxx/doc/stdlibug/VII.html Apache C++ Standard Library Locale User's Guide]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110520132147/http://www.collation-charts.org/ Sort order charts for various operating system locales and database collations]
• [http://www.freesource.info/wiki/Lokalizacija/NATSPECDescription NATSPEC Library]
• [http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-tune.en.html#s-env-locale Description of locale-related UNIX environment variables in Debian Linux Reference Manual]
• [http://docs.translatehouse.org/projects/localization-guide/en/latest/guide/start.html?id=guide/start#locales Guides to locales and locale creation on various platforms]

Category:Unix user management and support-related utilities

Category:Unix SUS2008 utilities

Category:Internationalization and localization