| :mod:`locale` --- Internationalization services | |
| =============================================== | |
| .. module:: locale | |
| :synopsis: Internationalization services. | |
| .. moduleauthor:: Martin von Löwis <martin@v.loewis.de> | |
| .. sectionauthor:: Martin von Löwis <martin@v.loewis.de> | |
| **Source code:** :source:`Lib/locale.py` | |
| -------------- | |
| The :mod:`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. | |
| .. index:: module: _locale | |
| The :mod:`locale` module is implemented on top of the :mod:`_locale` module, | |
| which in turn uses an ANSI C locale implementation if available. | |
| The :mod:`locale` module defines the following exception and functions: | |
| .. exception:: Error | |
| Exception raised when the locale passed to :func:`setlocale` is not | |
| recognized. | |
| .. function:: setlocale(category, locale=None) | |
| If *locale* is given and not ``None``, :func:`setlocale` modifies the locale | |
| setting for the *category*. The available categories are listed in the data | |
| description below. *locale* may be a string, or an iterable of two strings | |
| (language code and encoding). If it's an iterable, it's converted to a locale | |
| name using the locale aliasing engine. An empty string specifies the user's | |
| default settings. If the modification of the locale fails, the exception | |
| :exc:`Error` is raised. If successful, the new locale setting is returned. | |
| If *locale* is omitted or ``None``, the current setting for *category* is | |
| returned. | |
| :func:`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 :envvar:`LANG` environment variable). If the locale is not | |
| changed thereafter, using multithreading should not cause problems. | |
| .. function:: localeconv() | |
| Returns the database of the local conventions as a dictionary. This dictionary | |
| has the following strings as keys: | |
| .. tabularcolumns:: |l|l|L| | |
| +----------------------+-------------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | |
| | Category | Key | Meaning | | |
| +======================+=====================================+================================+ | |
| | :const:`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 | | |
| | | | :const:`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. | | |
| +----------------------+-------------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | |
| | :const:`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 :const:`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. | | |
| +--------------+-----------------------------------------+ | |
| The function sets temporarily the ``LC_CTYPE`` locale to the ``LC_NUMERIC`` | |
| locale or the ``LC_MONETARY`` locale if locales are different and numeric or | |
| monetary strings are non-ASCII. This temporary change affects other threads. | |
| .. versionchanged:: 3.7 | |
| The function now sets temporarily the ``LC_CTYPE`` locale to the | |
| ``LC_NUMERIC`` locale in some cases. | |
| .. function:: 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 :func:`nl_langinfo` function accepts one of the following keys. Most | |
| descriptions are taken from the corresponding description in the GNU C | |
| library. | |
| .. data:: CODESET | |
| Get a string with the name of the character encoding used in the | |
| selected locale. | |
| .. data:: D_T_FMT | |
| Get a string that can be used as a format string for :func:`time.strftime` to | |
| represent date and time in a locale-specific way. | |
| .. data:: D_FMT | |
| Get a string that can be used as a format string for :func:`time.strftime` to | |
| represent a date in a locale-specific way. | |
| .. data:: T_FMT | |
| Get a string that can be used as a format string for :func:`time.strftime` to | |
| represent a time in a locale-specific way. | |
| .. data:: T_FMT_AMPM | |
| Get a format string for :func:`time.strftime` to represent time in the am/pm | |
| format. | |
| .. data:: DAY_1 ... DAY_7 | |
| Get the name of the n-th day of the week. | |
| .. note:: | |
| This follows the US convention of :const:`DAY_1` being Sunday, not the | |
| international convention (ISO 8601) that Monday is the first day of the | |
| week. | |
| .. data:: ABDAY_1 ... ABDAY_7 | |
| Get the abbreviated name of the n-th day of the week. | |
| .. data:: MON_1 ... MON_12 | |
| Get the name of the n-th month. | |
| .. data:: ABMON_1 ... ABMON_12 | |
| Get the abbreviated name of the n-th month. | |
| .. data:: RADIXCHAR | |
| Get the radix character (decimal dot, decimal comma, etc.). | |
| .. data:: THOUSEP | |
| Get the separator character for thousands (groups of three digits). | |
| .. data:: 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 :c:func:`regex` function | |
| from the C library, which might differ from the syntax used in :mod:`re`. | |
| .. data:: NOEXPR | |
| Get a regular expression that can be used with the regex(3) function to | |
| recognize a negative response to a yes/no question. | |
| .. data:: 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. | |
| .. data:: 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 :func:`time.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. | |
| .. data:: ERA_D_T_FMT | |
| Get a format string for :func:`time.strftime` to represent date and time in a | |
| locale-specific era-based way. | |
| .. data:: ERA_D_FMT | |
| Get a format string for :func:`time.strftime` to represent a date in a | |
| locale-specific era-based way. | |
| .. data:: ERA_T_FMT | |
| Get a format string for :func:`time.strftime` to represent a time in a | |
| locale-specific era-based way. | |
| .. data:: ALT_DIGITS | |
| Get a representation of up to 100 values used to represent the values | |
| 0 to 99. | |
| .. function:: 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 :envvar:`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 :envvar:`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 ``'LC_ALL'``, | |
| ``'LC_CTYPE'``, ``'LANG'`` and ``'LANGUAGE'``, 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. | |
| .. function:: getlocale(category=LC_CTYPE) | |
| Returns the current setting for the given locale category as sequence containing | |
| *language code*, *encoding*. *category* may be one of the :const:`LC_\*` values | |
| except :const:`LC_ALL`. It defaults to :const:`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. | |
| .. function:: getpreferredencoding(do_setlocale=True) | |
| 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 :func:`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``. | |
| On Android or in the UTF-8 mode (:option:`-X` ``utf8`` option), always | |
| return ``'UTF-8'``, the locale and the *do_setlocale* argument are ignored. | |
| .. versionchanged:: 3.7 | |
| The function now always returns ``UTF-8`` on Android or if the UTF-8 mode | |
| is enabled. | |
| .. function:: normalize(localename) | |
| Returns a normalized locale code for the given locale name. The returned locale | |
| code is formatted for use with :func:`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 :func:`setlocale`. | |
| .. function:: resetlocale(category=LC_ALL) | |
| Sets the locale for *category* to the default setting. | |
| The default setting is determined by calling :func:`getdefaultlocale`. | |
| *category* defaults to :const:`LC_ALL`. | |
| .. function:: strcoll(string1, string2) | |
| Compares two strings according to the current :const:`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. | |
| .. function:: strxfrm(string) | |
| Transforms a string to one that can be used in locale-aware | |
| comparisons. For example, ``strxfrm(s1) < strxfrm(s2)`` is | |
| equivalent to ``strcoll(s1, s2) < 0``. This function can be used | |
| when the same string is compared repeatedly, e.g. when collating a | |
| sequence of strings. | |
| .. function:: format_string(format, val, grouping=False, monetary=False) | |
| Formats a number *val* according to the current :const:`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. | |
| Processes formatting specifiers as in ``format % val``, but takes the current | |
| locale settings into account. | |
| .. versionchanged:: 3.7 | |
| The *monetary* keyword parameter was added. | |
| .. function:: format(format, val, grouping=False, monetary=False) | |
| Please note that this function works like :meth:`format_string` but will | |
| only work for exactly one ``%char`` specifier. For example, ``'%f'`` and | |
| ``'%.0f'`` are both valid specifiers, but ``'%f KiB'`` is not. | |
| For whole format strings, use :func:`format_string`. | |
| .. deprecated:: 3.7 | |
| Use :meth:`format_string` instead. | |
| .. function:: currency(val, symbol=True, grouping=False, international=False) | |
| Formats a number *val* according to the current :const:`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 :func:`setlocale` first. | |
| .. function:: 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. | |
| .. function:: delocalize(string) | |
| Converts a string into a normalized number string, following the | |
| :const:`LC_NUMERIC` settings. | |
| .. versionadded:: 3.5 | |
| .. function:: atof(string) | |
| Converts a string to a floating point number, following the :const:`LC_NUMERIC` | |
| settings. | |
| .. function:: atoi(string) | |
| Converts a string to an integer, following the :const:`LC_NUMERIC` conventions. | |
| .. data:: LC_CTYPE | |
| .. index:: module: string | |
| Locale category for the character type functions. Depending on the settings of | |
| this category, the functions of module :mod:`string` dealing with case change | |
| their behaviour. | |
| .. data:: LC_COLLATE | |
| Locale category for sorting strings. The functions :func:`strcoll` and | |
| :func:`strxfrm` of the :mod:`locale` module are affected. | |
| .. data:: LC_TIME | |
| Locale category for the formatting of time. The function :func:`time.strftime` | |
| follows these conventions. | |
| .. data:: LC_MONETARY | |
| Locale category for formatting of monetary values. The available options are | |
| available from the :func:`localeconv` function. | |
| .. data:: 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 :func:`os.strerror` might be affected by this | |
| category. | |
| .. data:: LC_NUMERIC | |
| Locale category for formatting numbers. The functions :func:`.format`, | |
| :func:`atoi`, :func:`atof` and :func:`.str` of the :mod:`locale` module are | |
| affected by that category. All other numeric formatting operations are not | |
| affected. | |
| .. data:: 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. | |
| .. data:: CHAR_MAX | |
| This is a symbolic constant used for different values returned by | |
| :func:`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. There is one exception: the | |
| :data:`LC_CTYPE` category is changed at startup to set the current locale | |
| encoding to the user's preferred locale encoding. The program must explicitly | |
| say that it wants the user's preferred locale settings for other categories by | |
| calling ``setlocale(LC_ALL, '')``. | |
| It is generally a bad idea to call :func:`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 | |
| certain formats used with :func:`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 only way to perform numeric operations according to the locale is to use the | |
| special functions defined by this module: :func:`atof`, :func:`atoi`, | |
| :func:`.format`, :func:`.str`. | |
| There is no way to perform case conversions and character classifications | |
| according to the locale. For (Unicode) text strings these are done according | |
| to the character value only, while for byte strings, the conversions and | |
| classifications are done according to the ASCII value of the byte, and bytes | |
| whose high bit is set (i.e., non-ASCII bytes) are never converted or considered | |
| part of a character class such as letter or whitespace. | |
| .. _embedding-locale: | |
| For extension writers and programs that embed Python | |
| ---------------------------------------------------- | |
| Extension modules should never call :func:`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 :mod:`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 :mod:`_locale` extension module (which does | |
| all the work) from the table of built-in modules in the :file:`config.c` file, | |
| and make sure that the :mod:`_locale` module is not accessible as a shared | |
| library. | |
| .. _locale-gettext: | |
| Access to message catalogs | |
| -------------------------- | |
| .. function:: gettext(msg) | |
| .. function:: dgettext(domain, msg) | |
| .. function:: dcgettext(domain, msg, category) | |
| .. function:: textdomain(domain) | |
| .. function:: bindtextdomain(domain, dir) | |
| The locale module exposes the C library's gettext interface on systems that | |
| provide this interface. It consists of the functions :func:`!gettext`, | |
| :func:`!dgettext`, :func:`!dcgettext`, :func:`!textdomain`, :func:`!bindtextdomain`, | |
| and :func:`!bind_textdomain_codeset`. These are similar to the same functions in | |
| the :mod:`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 :mod:`gettext` instead. A known exception to this rule are | |
| applications that link with additional C libraries which internally invoke | |
| :c:func:`gettext` or :c:func:`dcgettext`. For these applications, it may be | |
| necessary to bind the text domain, so that the libraries can properly locate | |
| their message catalogs. | |