std::setlocale

 

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Technical Specifications

 

Localizations library

Locales and facets
locale
use_facet	has_facet
Character classification
isspace isblank (C++11) iscntrl isupper islower isalpha	isdigit ispunct isxdigit isalnum isprint isgraph
Conversions
toupper tolower	wstring_convert (C++11) wbuffer_convert (C++11)
Facet category base classes
ctype_base codecvt_base messages_base	time_base money_base
Facet categories
ctype ctype<char> codecvt collate messages time_get time_put	num_get num_put numpunct money_get money_put moneypunct
Locale-specific facets
ctype_byname codecvt_byname messages_byname collate_byname	time_get_byname time_put_byname numpunct_byname moneypunct_byname
Code conversion facets
codecvt_utf8 (C++11) codecvt_utf16 (C++11)	codecvt_utf8_utf16 (C++11) codecvt_mode (C++11)
C locale
setlocale localeconv lconv	LC_ALLLC_COLLATELC_CTYPELC_MONETARYLC_NUMERICLC_TIME

 

Defined in header <clocale>
char* setlocale( int category, const char* locale);

The setlocale function installs the specified system locale or its portion as the new C locale. The modifications remain in effect and influences the execution of all locale-sensitive C library functions until the next call to setlocale. If locale is a null pointer, setlocale queries the current C locale without modifying it.

Parameters

category	-	locale category identifier, one of the LC_xxx macros. May be 0.
locale	-	system-specific locale identifier. Can be "" for the user-preferred locale or "C" for the minimal locale

Return value

Pointer to a narrow null-terminated string identifying the C locale after applying the changes, if any, or null pointer on failure.

A copy of the returned string along with the category used in this call to std::setlocale may be used later in the program to restore the locale back to the state at the end of this call.

Notes

During program startup, the equivalent of std::setlocale(LC_ALL, "C"); is executed before any user code is run.

Although the return type is char*, modifying the pointed-to characters is undefined behavior.

Because setlocale modifies global state which affects execution of locale-dependent functions, it is undefined behavior to call it from one thread, while another thread is executing any of the following functions: std::fprintf, std::isprint, std::iswdigit, std::localeconv, std::tolower, std::fscanf, std::ispunct, std::iswgraph, std::mblen, std::toupper, std::isalnum, std::isspace, std::iswlower, std::mbstowcs, std::towlower, std::isalpha, std::isupper, std::iswprint, std::mbtowc, std::towupper, std::isblank, std::iswalnum, std::iswpunct, std::setlocale, std::wcscoll, std::iscntrl, std::iswalpha, std::iswspace, std::strcoll, std::wcstod, std::isdigit, std::iswblank, std::iswupper, std::strerror, std::wcstombs, std::isgraph, std::iswcntrl, std::iswxdigit, std::strtod, std::wcsxfrm, std::islower, std::iswctype, std::isxdigit.

POSIX also defines a locale named "POSIX", which is always accessible and is exactly equivalent to the default minimal "C" locale.

POSIX also specifies that the returned pointer, not just the contents of the pointed-to string, may be invalidated by subsequent calls to setlocale.

Example

Run this code

#include <cstdio>
#include <clocale>
#include <ctime>
#include <cwchar>
 
int main()
{
    // the C locale will be UTF-8 enabled English;
    // decimal dot will be German
    // date and time formatting will be Japanese
    std::setlocale(LC_ALL, "en_US.UTF-8");
    std::setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "de_DE.UTF-8");
    std::setlocale(LC_TIME, "ja_JP.UTF-8");
 
    wchar_t str[100];
    std::time_t t = std::time(NULL);
    std::wcsftime(str, 100, L"%A %c", std::localtime(&t));
    std::wprintf(L"Number: %.2f\nDate: %Ls\n", 3.14, str);
}

Output:

Number: 3,14
Date: 月曜日 2011年12月19日 18時04分40秒

See also

LC_ALLLC_COLLATELC_CTYPELC_MONETARYLC_NUMERICLC_TIME	locale categories for std::setlocale (macro constant)
locale	set of polymorphic facets that encapsulate cultural differences (class)