# 6.24 `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 `Error`
  Exception raised when `setlocale()` fails.

`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.

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

  Key | Category | 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.
  | `'mon_decimal_point'` | Decimal point used for 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 nnegative monetary value.
  | `'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.

  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.
  ``LC_MAX`` | Nothing is specified in this 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'`, code'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.

`getlocale`([category])
  Returns the current setting for the given locale category as tuple (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.

`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.

`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.

`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.

`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.

`format`(format, val[, grouping])
  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.

`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.

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

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

`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.

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

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

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

`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.

`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.

`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.

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

Example:

      >>> import locale
      >>> loc = locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL) # get current locale
      >>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'de') # use German locale
      >>> 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

Subsections

- 6.24.1 Background, details, hints, tips and caveats
- 6.24.2 For extension writers and programs that embed Python