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DESCRIPTION

The setlocale() function recognizes several categories of routines. These are the categories and the sets of routines they select:

LC_ALL

Set the entire locale generically.

LC_COLLATE

Set a locale for string collation routines. This controls alphabetic ordering in strcoll() and strxfrm().

LC_CTYPE

Set a locale for the ctype(3) functions. This controls recognition of upper and lower case, alphabetic or non-alphabetic characters, and so on. The real work is done by the setrunelocale() function.

LC_MESSAGES

Set a locale for message catalogs. This controls the selection of message catalogs by the catgets(3) and gettext(3) families of functions.

LC_MONETARY

Set a locale for formatting monetary values; this affects the localeconv() function.

LC_NUMERIC

Set a locale for formatting numbers. This controls the formatting of decimal points in input and output of floating point numbers in functions such as printf() and scanf(), as well as values returned by localeconv().

LC_TIME

Set a locale for formatting dates and times using the 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:

decimal_point

The decimal point character, except for monetary values.

thousands_sep

The separator between groups of digits before the decimal point, except for monetary values.

grouping

The sizes of the groups of digits, except for monetary values. This is a pointer to a vector of integers, each of size char, representing group size from low order digit groups to high order (right to left). The list may be terminated with 0 or 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.

int_curr_symbol

The standardized (ISO 4217:1995) international currency symbol.

currency_symbol

The local currency symbol.

mon_decimal_point

The decimal point character for monetary values.

mon_thousands_sep

The separator for digit groups in monetary values.

mon_grouping

Like grouping but for monetary values.

positive_sign

The character used to denote nonnegative monetary values, usually the empty string.

negative_sign

The character used to denote negative monetary values, usually a minus sign.

int_frac_digits

The number of digits after the decimal point in an internationally formatted monetary value.

frac_digits

The number of digits after the decimal point in an locally formatted monetary value.

p_cs_precedes

1 if the currency symbol precedes the monetary value for nonnegative values, 0 if it follows.

p_sep_by_space

1 if a space is inserted between the currency symbol and the monetary value for nonnegative values, 0 otherwise.

n_cs_precedes

Like p_cs_precedes but for negative values.

n_sep_by_space

Like p_sep_by_space but for negative values.

p_sign_posn

The location of the positive_sign with respect to a nonnegative quantity and the currency_symbol.

n_sign_posn

Like p_sign_posn but for negative currency values.

int_p_cs_precedes

1 if the currency symbol precedes the internationally formatted monetary value for nonnegative values, 0 if it follows.

int_n_cs_precedes

Like int_p_cs_precedes but for negative values.

int_p_sep_by_space

1 if a space is inserted between the currency symbol and the internationally formatted monetary value for nonnegative values, 0 otherwise.

int_n_sep_by_space

Like int_p_sep_by_space but for negative values.

int_p_sign_posn

The location of the positive_sign with respect to a nonnegative quantity and the currency_symbol, for internationally formatted nonnegative monetary values.

int_n_sign_posn

Like int_p_sign_posn but for negative values.

The positional parameters in p_sign_posn, n_sign_posn, int_p_sign_posn and int_n_sign_posn are encoded as follows:

0

Parentheses around the entire string.

1

Before the string.

2

After the string.

3

Just before currency_symbol.

4

Just after currency_symbol.

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(LC_ALL, "de");
	setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "fr");

	setlocale(LC_ALL, "");