.\" $NetBSD: setlocale.3,v 1.3 1997/07/14 23:19:47 kleink Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" Donn Seeley at BSDI. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)setlocale.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93 .\" .Dd June 9, 1993 .Dt SETLOCALE 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm setlocale , .Nm localeconv .Nd natural language formatting for C .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Ft char * .Fn setlocale "int category" "const char *locale" .Ft struct lconv * .Fn localeconv "void" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn setlocale function sets the C library's notion of natural language formatting style for particular sets of routines. Each such style is called a .Dq locale and is invoked using an appropriate name passed as a C string. The .Fn localeconv routine returns the current locale's parameters for formatting numbers. .Pp The .Fn setlocale function recognizes several categories of routines. These are the categories and the sets of routines they select: .Bl -tag -width LC_MONETARY .It Dv LC_ALL Set the entire locale generically. .It Dv LC_COLLATE Set a locale for string collation routines. This controls alphabetic ordering in .Fn strcoll and .Fn strxfrm . .It Dv LC_CTYPE Set a locale for the .Xr 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 .Fn setrunelocale function. .It Dv LC_MONETARY Set a locale for formatting monetary values; this affects the .Fn localeconv function. .It Dv 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 .Fn printf and .Fn scanf , as well as values returned by .Fn localeconv . .It Dv LC_TIME Set a locale for formatting dates and times using the .Fn strftime function. .El .Pp Only three locales are defined by default, the empty string .Li "\&""\|"" which denotes the native environment, and the .Li "\&""C"" and .Li "\&""POSIX"" locales, which denote the C language environment. A .Fa locale argument of .Dv NULL causes .Fn setlocale to return the current locale. By default, C programs start in the .Li "\&""C"" locale. The only function in the library that sets the locale is .Fn setlocale ; the locale is never changed as a side effect of some other routine. .Pp The .Fn localeconv function returns a pointer to a structure which provides parameters for formatting numbers, especially currency values: .Bd -literal -offset indent 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; }; .Ed .Pp The individual fields have the following meanings: .Bl -tag -width mon_decimal_point .It Fa decimal_point The decimal point character, except for currency values. .It Fa thousands_sep The separator between groups of digits before the decimal point, except for currency values. .It Fa grouping The sizes of the groups of digits, except for currency values. This is a pointer to a vector of integers, each of size .Li char , representing group size from low order digit groups to high order (right to left). The list may be terminated with 0 or .Dv 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 .Dv CHAR_MAX , no more grouping is performed. .It Fa int_curr_symbol The standardized international currency symbol. .It Fa currency_symbol The local currency symbol. .It Fa mon_decimal_point The decimal point character for currency values. .It Fa mon_thousands_sep The separator for digit groups in currency values. .It Fa mon_grouping Like .Fa grouping but for currency values. .It Fa positive_sign The character used to denote non-negative currency values, usually the empty string. .It Fa negative_sign The character used to denote negative currency values, usually a minus sign. .It Fa int_frac_digits The number of digits after the decimal point in an international-style currency value. .It Fa frac_digits The number of digits after the decimal point in the local style for currency values. .It Fa p_cs_precedes 1 if the currency symbol precedes the currency value for non-negative values, 0 if it follows. .It Fa p_sep_by_space 1 if a space is inserted between the currency symbol and the currency value for non-negative values, 0 otherwise. .It Fa n_cs_precedes Like .Fa p_cs_precedes but for negative values. .It Fa n_sep_by_space Like .Fa p_sep_by_space but for negative values. .It Fa p_sign_posn The location of the .Fa positive_sign with respect to a non-negative quantity and the .Fa currency_symbol , coded as follows: .Pp .Bl -tag -width 3n -compact .It Li 0 Parentheses around the entire string. .It Li 1 Before the string. .It Li 2 After the string. .It Li 3 Just before .Fa currency_symbol . .It Li 4 Just after .Fa currency_symbol . .El .It Fa n_sign_posn Like .Fa p_sign_posn but for negative currency values. .El .Pp 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 .Dv CHAR_MAX result similarly denotes an unavailable value. .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn setlocale function returns .Dv NULL and fails to change the locale if the given combination of .Fa category and .Fa locale makes no sense. The .Fn localeconv function returns a pointer to a static object which may be altered by later calls to .Fn setlocale or .Fn localeconv . .\" .Sh FILES XXX .\" .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/locale/locale/category -compact XXX .\" .It Pa $PATH_LOCALE/\fIlocale\fP/\fIcategory\fP XXX .\" .It Pa /usr/share/locale/\fIlocale\fP/\fIcategory\fP XXX .\" locale file for the locale \fIlocale\fP XXX .\" and the category \fIcategory\fP. XXX .\" .El .\" .Sh SEE ALSO .\" .Xr strcoll 3 , XXX .\" .Xr strxfrm 3 XXX .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn setlocale and .Fn localeconv functions conform to .St -ansiC . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn setlocale and .Fn localeconv functions first appeared in .Bx 4.4 . .Sh BUGS The current implementation supports only the .Li "\&""C"" and .Li "\&""POSIX"" locales for all but the .Dv LC_CTYPE locale. .Pp In spite of the gnarly currency support in .Fn localeconv , the standards don't include any functions for generalized currency formatting. .Pp .Dv LC_COLLATE does not make sense for many languages. Use of .Dv LC_MONETARY could lead to misleading results until we have a real time currency conversion function. .Dv LC_NUMERIC and .Dv LC_TIME are personal choices and should not be wrapped up with the other categories.