| <html lang="en"> |
| <head> |
| <title>Locale Categories - The GNU C Library</title> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> |
| <meta name="description" content="The GNU C Library"> |
| <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> |
| <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> |
| <link rel="up" href="Locales.html#Locales" title="Locales"> |
| <link rel="prev" href="Choosing-Locale.html#Choosing-Locale" title="Choosing Locale"> |
| <link rel="next" href="Setting-the-Locale.html#Setting-the-Locale" title="Setting the Locale"> |
| <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> |
| <!-- |
| This file documents the GNU C library. |
| |
| This is Edition 0.12, last updated 2007-10-27, |
| of `The GNU C Library Reference Manual', for version |
| 2.8 (Sourcery G++ Lite 2011.03-41). |
| |
| Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, |
| 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| |
| Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document |
| under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or |
| any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the |
| Invariant Sections being ``Free Software Needs Free Documentation'' |
| and ``GNU Lesser General Public License'', the Front-Cover texts being |
| ``A GNU Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A |
| copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free |
| Documentation License". |
| |
| (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have the freedom to |
| copy and modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF |
| supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.''--> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> |
| <style type="text/css"><!-- |
| pre.display { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.format { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } |
| span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } |
| span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| --></style> |
| <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css"> |
| </head> |
| <body> |
| <div class="node"> |
| <a name="Locale-Categories"></a> |
| <p> |
| Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Setting-the-Locale.html#Setting-the-Locale">Setting the Locale</a>, |
| Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Choosing-Locale.html#Choosing-Locale">Choosing Locale</a>, |
| Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Locales.html#Locales">Locales</a> |
| <hr> |
| </div> |
| |
| <h3 class="section">7.3 Categories of Activities that Locales Affect</h3> |
| |
| <p><a name="index-categories-for-locales-690"></a><a name="index-locale-categories-691"></a> |
| The purposes that locales serve are grouped into <dfn>categories</dfn>, so |
| that a user or a program can choose the locale for each category |
| independently. Here is a table of categories; each name is both an |
| environment variable that a user can set, and a macro name that you can |
| use as an argument to <code>setlocale</code>. |
| |
| <dl> |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <dt><code>LC_COLLATE</code><a name="index-LC_005fCOLLATE-692"></a><dd>This category applies to collation of strings (functions <code>strcoll</code> |
| and <code>strxfrm</code>); see <a href="Collation-Functions.html#Collation-Functions">Collation Functions</a>. |
| |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <br><dt><code>LC_CTYPE</code><a name="index-LC_005fCTYPE-693"></a><dd>This category applies to classification and conversion of characters, |
| and to multibyte and wide characters; |
| see <a href="Character-Handling.html#Character-Handling">Character Handling</a>, and <a href="Character-Set-Handling.html#Character-Set-Handling">Character Set Handling</a>. |
| |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <br><dt><code>LC_MONETARY</code><a name="index-LC_005fMONETARY-694"></a><dd>This category applies to formatting monetary values; see <a href="General-Numeric.html#General-Numeric">General Numeric</a>. |
| |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <br><dt><code>LC_NUMERIC</code><a name="index-LC_005fNUMERIC-695"></a><dd>This category applies to formatting numeric values that are not |
| monetary; see <a href="General-Numeric.html#General-Numeric">General Numeric</a>. |
| |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <br><dt><code>LC_TIME</code><a name="index-LC_005fTIME-696"></a><dd>This category applies to formatting date and time values; see |
| <a href="Formatting-Calendar-Time.html#Formatting-Calendar-Time">Formatting Calendar Time</a>. |
| |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- XOPEN --> |
| <br><dt><code>LC_MESSAGES</code><a name="index-LC_005fMESSAGES-697"></a><dd>This category applies to selecting the language used in the user |
| interface for message translation (see <a href="The-Uniforum-approach.html#The-Uniforum-approach">The Uniforum approach</a>; |
| see <a href="Message-catalogs-a-la-X_002fOpen.html#Message-catalogs-a-la-X_002fOpen">Message catalogs a la X/Open</a>) and contains regular expressions |
| for affirmative and negative responses. |
| |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <br><dt><code>LC_ALL</code><a name="index-LC_005fALL-698"></a><dd>This is not an environment variable; it is only a macro that you can use |
| with <code>setlocale</code> to set a single locale for all purposes. Setting |
| this environment variable overwrites all selections by the other |
| <code>LC_*</code> variables or <code>LANG</code>. |
| |
| <!-- locale.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <br><dt><code>LANG</code><a name="index-LANG-699"></a><dd>If this environment variable is defined, its value specifies the locale |
| to use for all purposes except as overridden by the variables above. |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p><a name="index-LANGUAGE-700"></a>When developing the message translation functions it was felt that the |
| functionality provided by the variables above is not sufficient. For |
| example, it should be possible to specify more than one locale name. |
| Take a Swedish user who better speaks German than English, and a program |
| whose messages are output in English by default. It should be possible |
| to specify that the first choice of language is Swedish, the second |
| German, and if this also fails to use English. This is |
| possible with the variable <code>LANGUAGE</code>. For further description of |
| this GNU extension see <a href="Using-gettextized-software.html#Using-gettextized-software">Using gettextized software</a>. |
| |
| </body></html> |
| |
