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setlocale(3)

NAME

     setlocale -- natural language formatting for C

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <locale.h>

     char *
     setlocale(int category, const char *locale);

DESCRIPTION

     The setlocale() function sets the C library's notion of natural language
     formatting style for particular sets of routines.	Each such style is
     called a `locale' and is invoked using an appropriate name passed as a C
     string.

     The setlocale() function recognizes several categories of routines.
     These are the categories and the sets of routines they select:

     LC_ALL	  Set the entire locale generically.

     LC_COLLATE   Set a locale for string collation routines.  This controls
		  alphabetic ordering in strcoll() and strxfrm().

     LC_CTYPE	  Set a locale for the ctype(3), mbrune(3), multibyte(3) and
		  rune(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 setrunelocale() function.

     LC_MESSAGES  Set a locale for message catalogs, see catopen(3) function.

     LC_MONETARY  Set a locale for formatting monetary values; this affects
		  the localeconv() function.

     LC_NUMERIC   Set a locale for formatting numbers.	This controls the for-
		  matting of decimal points in input and output of floating
		  point numbers in functions such as printf() and scanf(), as
		  well as values returned by localeconv().

     LC_TIME	  Set a locale for formatting dates and times using the
		  strftime() function.

     Only three locales are defined by default, the empty string "" which
     denotes the native environment, and the "C" and "POSIX" locales, which
     denote the C language environment.  A locale argument of NULL causes
     setlocale() to return the current locale.	By default, C programs start
     in the "C" locale.  The only function in the library that sets the locale
     is setlocale(); the locale is never changed as a side effect of some
     other routine.

RETURN VALUES

     Upon successful completion, setlocale() returns the string associated
     with the specified category for the requested locale.  The setlocale()
     function returns NULL and fails to change the locale if the given combi-
     nation of category and locale makes no sense.

SEE ALSO

     colldef(1), mklocale(1), catopen(3), ctype(3), localeconv(3), mbrune(3),
     multibyte(3), rune(3), strcoll(3), strxfrm(3), euc(5), utf2(5), utf8(5),
     environ(7)

STANDARDS

     The setlocale() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (``ISO C99'').

HISTORY

     The setlocale() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

FreeBSD 5.4		       November 21, 2003		   FreeBSD 5.4

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