
``locale`` --- Internationalization services
********************************************

The ``locale`` module opens access to the POSIX locale database and
functionality. The POSIX locale mechanism allows programmers to deal
with certain cultural issues in an application, without requiring the
programmer to know all the specifics of each country where the
software is executed.

The ``locale`` module is implemented on top of the ``_locale`` module,
which in turn uses an ANSI C locale implementation if available.

The ``locale`` module defines the following exception and functions:

exception exception locale.Error

   Exception raised when ``setlocale()`` fails.

locale.setlocale(category[, locale])

   If *locale* is specified, it may be a string, a tuple of the form
   ``(language code, encoding)``, or ``None``. If it is a tuple, it is
   converted to a string using the locale aliasing engine.  If
   *locale* is given and not ``None``, ``setlocale()`` modifies the
   locale setting for the *category*.  The available categories are
   listed in the data description below.  The value is the name of a
   locale.  An empty string specifies the user's default settings. If
   the modification of the locale fails, the exception ``Error`` is
   raised.  If successful, the new locale setting is returned.

   If *locale* is omitted or ``None``, the current setting for
   *category* is returned.

   ``setlocale()`` is not thread safe on most systems. Applications
   typically start with a call of

      import locale
      locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, '')

   This sets the locale for all categories to the user's default
   setting (typically specified in the **LANG** environment variable).
   If the locale is not changed thereafter, using multithreading
   should not cause problems.

   Changed in version 2.0: Added support for tuple values of the
   *locale* parameter.

locale.localeconv()

   Returns the database of the local conventions as a dictionary. This
   dictionary has the following strings as keys:

   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   | Category               | Key                                   | Meaning                          |
   +========================+=======================================+==================================+
   | ``LC_NUMERIC``         | ``'decimal_point'``                   | Decimal point character.         |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'grouping'``                        | Sequence of numbers specifying   |
   |                        |                                       | which relative positions the     |
   |                        |                                       | ``'thousands_sep'`` is expected. |
   |                        |                                       | If the sequence is terminated    |
   |                        |                                       | with ``CHAR_MAX``, no further    |
   |                        |                                       | grouping is performed. If the    |
   |                        |                                       | sequence terminates with a       |
   |                        |                                       | ``0``,  the last group size is   |
   |                        |                                       | repeatedly used.                 |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'thousands_sep'``                   | Character used between groups.   |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   | ``LC_MONETARY``        | ``'int_curr_symbol'``                 | International currency symbol.   |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'currency_symbol'``                 | Local currency symbol.           |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'p_cs_precedes/n_cs_precedes'``     | Whether the currency symbol      |
   |                        |                                       | precedes the value (for positive |
   |                        |                                       | resp. negative values).          |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'p_sep_by_space/n_sep_by_space'``   | Whether the currency symbol is   |
   |                        |                                       | separated from the value  by a   |
   |                        |                                       | space (for positive resp.        |
   |                        |                                       | negative values).                |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'mon_decimal_point'``               | Decimal point used for monetary  |
   |                        |                                       | values.                          |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'frac_digits'``                     | Number of fractional digits used |
   |                        |                                       | in local formatting of monetary  |
   |                        |                                       | values.                          |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'int_frac_digits'``                 | Number of fractional digits used |
   |                        |                                       | in international formatting of   |
   |                        |                                       | monetary values.                 |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'mon_thousands_sep'``               | Group separator used for         |
   |                        |                                       | monetary values.                 |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'mon_grouping'``                    | Equivalent to ``'grouping'``,    |
   |                        |                                       | used for monetary values.        |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'positive_sign'``                   | Symbol used to annotate a        |
   |                        |                                       | positive monetary value.         |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'negative_sign'``                   | Symbol used to annotate a        |
   |                        |                                       | negative monetary value.         |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
   |                        | ``'p_sign_posn/n_sign_posn'``         | The position of the sign (for    |
   |                        |                                       | positive resp. negative values), |
   |                        |                                       | see below.                       |
   +------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------------------------------+

   All numeric values can be set to ``CHAR_MAX`` to indicate that
   there is no value specified in this locale.

   The possible values for ``'p_sign_posn'`` and ``'n_sign_posn'`` are
   given below.

   +----------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | Value          | Explanation                               |
   +================+===========================================+
   | ``0``          | Currency and value are surrounded by      |
   |                | parentheses.                              |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | ``1``          | The sign should precede the value and     |
   |                | currency symbol.                          |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | ``2``          | The sign should follow the value and      |
   |                | currency symbol.                          |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | ``3``          | The sign should immediately precede the   |
   |                | value.                                    |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | ``4``          | The sign should immediately follow the    |
   |                | value.                                    |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | ``CHAR_MAX``   | Nothing is specified in this locale.      |
   +----------------+-------------------------------------------+

locale.nl_langinfo(option)

   Return some locale-specific information as a string.  This function
   is not available on all systems, and the set of possible options
   might also vary across platforms.  The possible argument values are
   numbers, for which symbolic constants are available in the locale
   module.

   The ``nl_langinfo()`` function accepts one of the following keys.
   Most descriptions are taken from the corresponding description in
   the GNU C library.

   locale.CODESET

      Get a string with the name of the character encoding used in the
      selected locale.

   locale.D_T_FMT

      Get a string that can be used as a format string for
      ``strftime()`` to represent time and date in a locale-specific
      way.

   locale.D_FMT

      Get a string that can be used as a format string for
      ``strftime()`` to represent a date in a locale-specific way.

   locale.T_FMT

      Get a string that can be used as a format string for
      ``strftime()`` to represent a time in a locale-specific way.

   locale.T_FMT_AMPM

      Get a format string for ``strftime()`` to represent time in the
      am/pm format.

   DAY_1 ... DAY_7

      Get the name of the n-th day of the week.

      Note: This follows the US convention of ``DAY_1`` being Sunday, not
        the international convention (ISO 8601) that Monday is the
        first day of the week.

   ABDAY_1 ... ABDAY_7

      Get the abbreviated name of the n-th day of the week.

   MON_1 ... MON_12

      Get the name of the n-th month.

   ABMON_1 ... ABMON_12

      Get the abbreviated name of the n-th month.

   locale.RADIXCHAR

      Get the radix character (decimal dot, decimal comma, etc.)

   locale.THOUSEP

      Get the separator character for thousands (groups of three
      digits).

   locale.YESEXPR

      Get a regular expression that can be used with the regex
      function to recognize a positive response to a yes/no question.

      Note: The expression is in the syntax suitable for the ``regex()``
        function from the C library, which might differ from the
        syntax used in ``re``.

   locale.NOEXPR

      Get a regular expression that can be used with the regex(3)
      function to recognize a negative response to a yes/no question.

   locale.CRNCYSTR

      Get the currency symbol, preceded by "-" if the symbol should
      appear before the value, "+" if the symbol should appear after
      the value, or "." if the symbol should replace the radix
      character.

   locale.ERA

      Get a string that represents the era used in the current locale.

      Most locales do not define this value.  An example of a locale
      which does define this value is the Japanese one.  In Japan, the
      traditional representation of dates includes the name of the era
      corresponding to the then-emperor's reign.

      Normally it should not be necessary to use this value directly.
      Specifying the ``E`` modifier in their format strings causes the
      ``strftime()`` function to use this information.  The format of
      the returned string is not specified, and therefore you should
      not assume knowledge of it on different systems.

   locale.ERA_YEAR

      Get the year in the relevant era of the locale.

   locale.ERA_D_T_FMT

      Get a format string for ``strftime()`` to represent dates and
      times in a locale-specific era-based way.

   locale.ERA_D_FMT

      Get a format string for ``strftime()`` to represent time in a
      locale-specific era-based way.

   locale.ALT_DIGITS

      Get a representation of up to 100 values used to represent the
      values 0 to 99.

locale.getdefaultlocale([envvars])

   Tries to determine the default locale settings and returns them as
   a tuple of the form ``(language code, encoding)``.

   According to POSIX, a program which has not called
   ``setlocale(LC_ALL, '')`` runs using the portable ``'C'`` locale.
   Calling ``setlocale(LC_ALL, '')`` lets it use the default locale as
   defined by the **LANG** variable.  Since we do not want to
   interfere with the current locale setting we thus emulate the
   behavior in the way described above.

   To maintain compatibility with other platforms, not only the
   **LANG** variable is tested, but a list of variables given as
   envvars parameter.  The first found to be defined will be used.
   *envvars* defaults to the search path used in GNU gettext; it must
   always contain the variable name ``LANG``.  The GNU gettext search
   path contains ``'LANGUAGE'``, ``'LC_ALL'``, ``'LC_CTYPE'``, and
   ``'LANG'``, in that order.

   Except for the code ``'C'``, the language code corresponds to **RFC
   1766**. *language code* and *encoding* may be ``None`` if their
   values cannot be determined.

   New in version 2.0.

locale.getlocale([category])

   Returns the current setting for the given locale category as
   sequence containing *language code*, *encoding*. *category* may be
   one of the ``LC_*`` values except ``LC_ALL``.  It defaults to
   ``LC_CTYPE``.

   Except for the code ``'C'``, the language code corresponds to **RFC
   1766**. *language code* and *encoding* may be ``None`` if their
   values cannot be determined.

   New in version 2.0.

locale.getpreferredencoding([do_setlocale])

   Return the encoding used for text data, according to user
   preferences.  User preferences are expressed differently on
   different systems, and might not be available programmatically on
   some systems, so this function only returns a guess.

   On some systems, it is necessary to invoke ``setlocale()`` to
   obtain the user preferences, so this function is not thread-safe.
   If invoking setlocale is not necessary or desired, *do_setlocale*
   should be set to ``False``.

   New in version 2.3.

locale.normalize(localename)

   Returns a normalized locale code for the given locale name.  The
   returned locale code is formatted for use with ``setlocale()``.  If
   normalization fails, the original name is returned unchanged.

   If the given encoding is not known, the function defaults to the
   default encoding for the locale code just like ``setlocale()``.

   New in version 2.0.

locale.resetlocale([category])

   Sets the locale for *category* to the default setting.

   The default setting is determined by calling
   ``getdefaultlocale()``. *category* defaults to ``LC_ALL``.

   New in version 2.0.

locale.strcoll(string1, string2)

   Compares two strings according to the current ``LC_COLLATE``
   setting. As any other compare function, returns a negative, or a
   positive value, or ``0``, depending on whether *string1* collates
   before or after *string2* or is equal to it.

locale.strxfrm(string)

   Transforms a string to one that can be used for the built-in
   function ``cmp()``, and still returns locale-aware results.  This
   function can be used when the same string is compared repeatedly,
   e.g. when collating a sequence of strings.

locale.format(format, val[, grouping[, monetary]])

   Formats a number *val* according to the current ``LC_NUMERIC``
   setting. The format follows the conventions of the ``%`` operator.
   For floating point values, the decimal point is modified if
   appropriate.  If *grouping* is true, also takes the grouping into
   account.

   If *monetary* is true, the conversion uses monetary thousands
   separator and grouping strings.

   Please note that this function will only work for exactly one %char
   specifier. For whole format strings, use ``format_string()``.

   Changed in version 2.5: Added the *monetary* parameter.

locale.format_string(format, val[, grouping])

   Processes formatting specifiers as in ``format % val``, but takes
   the current locale settings into account.

   New in version 2.5.

locale.currency(val[, symbol[, grouping[, international]]])

   Formats a number *val* according to the current ``LC_MONETARY``
   settings.

   The returned string includes the currency symbol if *symbol* is
   true, which is the default. If *grouping* is true (which is not the
   default), grouping is done with the value. If *international* is
   true (which is not the default), the international currency symbol
   is used.

   Note that this function will not work with the 'C' locale, so you
   have to set a locale via ``setlocale()`` first.

   New in version 2.5.

locale.str(float)

   Formats a floating point number using the same format as the built-
   in function ``str(float)``, but takes the decimal point into
   account.

locale.atof(string)

   Converts a string to a floating point number, following the
   ``LC_NUMERIC`` settings.

locale.atoi(string)

   Converts a string to an integer, following the ``LC_NUMERIC``
   conventions.

locale.LC_CTYPE

   Locale category for the character type functions.  Depending on the
   settings of this category, the functions of module ``string``
   dealing with case change their behaviour.

locale.LC_COLLATE

   Locale category for sorting strings.  The functions ``strcoll()``
   and ``strxfrm()`` of the ``locale`` module are affected.

locale.LC_TIME

   Locale category for the formatting of time.  The function
   ``time.strftime()`` follows these conventions.

locale.LC_MONETARY

   Locale category for formatting of monetary values.  The available
   options are available from the ``localeconv()`` function.

locale.LC_MESSAGES

   Locale category for message display. Python currently does not
   support application specific locale-aware messages.  Messages
   displayed by the operating system, like those returned by
   ``os.strerror()`` might be affected by this category.

locale.LC_NUMERIC

   Locale category for formatting numbers.  The functions
   ``format()``, ``atoi()``, ``atof()`` and ``str()`` of the
   ``locale`` module are affected by that category.  All other numeric
   formatting operations are not affected.

locale.LC_ALL

   Combination of all locale settings.  If this flag is used when the
   locale is changed, setting the locale for all categories is
   attempted. If that fails for any category, no category is changed
   at all.  When the locale is retrieved using this flag, a string
   indicating the setting for all categories is returned. This string
   can be later used to restore the settings.

locale.CHAR_MAX

   This is a symbolic constant used for different values returned by
   ``localeconv()``.

Example:

   >>> import locale
   >>> loc = locale.getlocale() # get current locale
   # use German locale; name might vary with platform
   >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'de_DE')
   >>> locale.strcoll('f\xe4n', 'foo') # compare a string containing an umlaut
   >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, '') # use user's preferred locale
   >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'C') # use default (C) locale
   >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, loc) # restore saved locale


Background, details, hints, tips and caveats
============================================

The C standard defines the locale as a program-wide property that may
be relatively expensive to change.  On top of that, some
implementation are broken in such a way that frequent locale changes
may cause core dumps.  This makes the locale somewhat painful to use
correctly.

Initially, when a program is started, the locale is the ``C`` locale,
no matter what the user's preferred locale is.  The program must
explicitly say that it wants the user's preferred locale settings by
calling ``setlocale(LC_ALL, '')``.

It is generally a bad idea to call ``setlocale()`` in some library
routine, since as a side effect it affects the entire program.  Saving
and restoring it is almost as bad: it is expensive and affects other
threads that happen to run before the settings have been restored.

If, when coding a module for general use, you need a locale
independent version of an operation that is affected by the locale
(such as ``string.lower()``, or certain formats used with
``time.strftime()``), you will have to find a way to do it without
using the standard library routine.  Even better is convincing
yourself that using locale settings is okay.  Only as a last resort
should you document that your module is not compatible with non-``C``
locale settings.

The case conversion functions in the ``string`` module are affected by
the locale settings.  When a call to the ``setlocale()`` function
changes the ``LC_CTYPE`` settings, the variables ``string.lowercase``,
``string.uppercase`` and ``string.letters`` are recalculated.  Note
that code that uses these variable through '``from`` ... ``import``
...', e.g. ``from string import letters``, is not affected by
subsequent ``setlocale()`` calls.

The only way to perform numeric operations according to the locale is
to use the special functions defined by this module: ``atof()``,
``atoi()``, ``format()``, ``str()``.


For extension writers and programs that embed Python
====================================================

Extension modules should never call ``setlocale()``, except to find
out what the current locale is.  But since the return value can only
be used portably to restore it, that is not very useful (except
perhaps to find out whether or not the locale is ``C``).

When Python code uses the ``locale`` module to change the locale, this
also affects the embedding application.  If the embedding application
doesn't want this to happen, it should remove the ``_locale``
extension module (which does all the work) from the table of built-in
modules in the ``config.c`` file, and make sure that the ``_locale``
module is not accessible as a shared library.


Access to message catalogs
==========================

The locale module exposes the C library's gettext interface on systems
that provide this interface.  It consists of the functions
``gettext()``, ``dgettext()``, ``dcgettext()``, ``textdomain()``,
``bindtextdomain()``, and ``bind_textdomain_codeset()``.  These are
similar to the same functions in the ``gettext`` module, but use the C
library's binary format for message catalogs, and the C library's
search algorithms for locating message catalogs.

Python applications should normally find no need to invoke these
functions, and should use ``gettext`` instead.  A known exception to
this rule are applications that link use additional C libraries which
internally invoke ``gettext()`` or ``dcgettext()``.  For these
applications, it may be necessary to bind the text domain, so that the
libraries can properly locate their message catalogs.
