1 package I18N::Langinfo;
11 our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
13 our @EXPORT = qw(langinfo);
75 our $VERSION = '0.17';
84 I18N::Langinfo - query locale information
92 The langinfo() function queries various locale information that can be
93 used to localize output and user interfaces. It uses the current underlying
94 locale, regardless of whether or not it was called from within the scope of
95 S<C<use locale>>. The langinfo() requires
96 one numeric argument that identifies the locale constant to query:
97 if no argument is supplied, C<$_> is used. The numeric constants
98 appropriate to be used as arguments are exportable from I18N::Langinfo.
100 The following example will import the langinfo() function itself and
101 three constants to be used as arguments to langinfo(): a constant for
102 the abbreviated first day of the week (the numbering starts from
103 Sunday = 1) and two more constants for the affirmative and negative
104 answers for a yes/no question in the current locale.
106 use I18N::Langinfo qw(langinfo ABDAY_1 YESSTR NOSTR);
108 my ($abday_1, $yesstr, $nostr) =
109 map { langinfo($_) } (ABDAY_1, YESSTR, NOSTR);
111 print "$abday_1? [$yesstr/$nostr] ";
113 In other words, in the "C" (or English) locale the above will probably
114 print something like:
118 but under a French locale
122 The usually available constants are
124 ABDAY_1 ABDAY_2 ABDAY_3 ABDAY_4 ABDAY_5 ABDAY_6 ABDAY_7
125 ABMON_1 ABMON_2 ABMON_3 ABMON_4 ABMON_5 ABMON_6
126 ABMON_7 ABMON_8 ABMON_9 ABMON_10 ABMON_11 ABMON_12
127 DAY_1 DAY_2 DAY_3 DAY_4 DAY_5 DAY_6 DAY_7
128 MON_1 MON_2 MON_3 MON_4 MON_5 MON_6
129 MON_7 MON_8 MON_9 MON_10 MON_11 MON_12
131 for abbreviated and full length days of the week and months of the year,
135 for the date-time, date, and time formats used by the strftime() function
138 AM_STR PM_STR T_FMT_AMPM
140 for the locales for which it makes sense to have ante meridiem and post
141 meridiem time formats,
145 for the character code set being used (such as "ISO8859-1", "cp850",
146 "koi8-r", "sjis", "utf8", etc.), for the currency string
148 ALT_DIGITS RADIXCHAR THOUSEP
150 for an alternate representation of digits, for the
151 radix character used between the integer and the fractional part
152 of decimal numbers, the group separator string for large-ish floating point
153 numbers (yes, the final two are redundant with POSIX::localeconv())
155 YESSTR YESEXPR NOSTR NOEXPR
157 for the affirmative and negative responses and expressions, and
159 ERA ERA_D_FMT ERA_D_T_FMT ERA_T_FMT
161 for the eras based on typically some ruler, such as the Japanese Emperor
162 (naturally only defined in the appropriate locales).
164 Starting in Perl 5.28, this module is available even on systems that lack a
165 native C<nl_langinfo>. On such systems, it uses various methods to construct
166 what that function, if present, would return. But there are potential
167 glitches. These are the items that could be different:
173 Unimplemented, so returns C<"">.
177 Unimplemented, except on Windows, due to the vagaries of vendor locale names,
178 returning C<""> on non-Windows.
188 Only the values for English are returned. C<YESSTR> and C<NOSTR> have been
189 removed from POSIX 2008, and are retained here for backwards compatibility.
190 Your platform's C<nl_langinfo> may not support them.
194 Always evaluates to C<%x>, the locale's appropriate date representation.
198 Always evaluates to C<%X>, the locale's appropriate time representation.
202 Always evaluates to C<%c>, the locale's appropriate date and time
207 The return may be incorrect for those rare locales where the currency symbol
208 replaces the radix character.
209 Send email to L<mailto:perlbug@perl.org> if you have examples of it needing
214 Currently this gives the same results as Linux does.
215 Send email to L<mailto:perlbug@perl.org> if you have examples of it needing
226 These are derived by using C<strftime()>, and not all versions of that function
227 know about them. C<""> is returned for these on such systems.
231 See your L<nl_langinfo(3)> for more information about the available
232 constants. (Often this means having to look directly at the
233 F<langinfo.h> C header file.)
237 By default only the C<langinfo()> function is exported.
241 Before Perl 5.28, the returned values are unreliable for the C<RADIXCHAR> and
242 C<THOUSEP> locale constants.
244 Starting in 5.28, changing locales on threaded builds is supported on systems
245 that offer thread-safe locale functions. These include POSIX 2008 systems and
246 Windows starting with Visual Studio 2005, and this module will work properly
247 in such situations. However, on threaded builds on Windows prior to Visual
248 Studio 2015, retrieving the items C<CRNCYSTR> and C<THOUSEP> can result in a
249 race with a thread that has converted to use the global locale. It is quite
250 uncommon for a thread to have done this. It would be possible to construct a
251 workaround for this; patches welcome: see L<perlapi/switch_to_global_locale>.
255 L<perllocale>, L<POSIX/localeconv>, L<POSIX/setlocale>, L<nl_langinfo(3)>.
257 The langinfo() is just a wrapper for the C nl_langinfo() interface.
261 Jarkko Hietaniemi, E<lt>jhi@hut.fiE<gt>. Now maintained by Perl 5 porters.
263 =head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
265 Copyright 2001 by Jarkko Hietaniemi
267 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
268 it under the same terms as Perl itself.