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36 .Nd natural language formatting for C
42 .Fn setlocale "int category" "const char *locale"
46 function sets the C library's notion
47 of natural language formatting style
48 for particular sets of routines.
49 Each such style is called a
51 and is invoked using an appropriate name passed as a C string.
55 function recognizes several categories of routines.
56 These are the categories and the sets of routines they select:
57 .Bl -tag -width LC_MONETARY
59 Set the entire locale generically.
61 Set a locale for string collation routines.
62 This controls alphabetic ordering in
72 This controls recognition of upper and lower case,
73 alphabetic or non-alphabetic characters,
76 Set a locale for message catalogs, see
80 Set a locale for formatting monetary values;
85 Set a locale for formatting numbers.
86 This controls the formatting of decimal points
87 in input and output of floating point numbers
92 as well as values returned by
95 Set a locale for formatting dates and times using the
99 Sets the generic locale category for native language, local customs
100 and coded character set in the absence of more specific locale
104 Only three locales are defined by default,
107 which denotes the native environment, and the
111 locales, which denote the C language environment.
118 to return the current locale.
124 command can be used to display all further possible names for the
126 argument that are recognized.
127 Specifying any unrecognized value for
133 By default, C programs start in the
137 The only function in the library that sets the locale is
139 the locale is never changed as a side effect of some other routine.
141 Upon successful completion,
143 returns the string associated with the specified
151 and fails to change the locale
152 if the given combination of
158 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/locale/locale/category -compact
159 .It Pa $PATH_LOCALE/ Ns Em locale/category
160 .It Pa /usr/share/locale/ Ns Em locale/category
161 locale file for the locale
167 The following code illustrates how a program can initialize the
168 international environment for one language, while selectively
169 modifying the program's locale such that regular expressions and
170 string operations can be applied to text recorded in a different
173 setlocale(LC_ALL, "de");
174 setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "fr");
177 When a process is started, its current locale is set to the C or POSIX
179 An internationalized program that depends on locale data not defined in
180 the C or POSIX locale must invoke the setlocale subroutine in the
181 following manner before using any of the locale-specific information:
183 setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
186 No errors are defined.
207 function first appeared in