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SETLOCALE(3)                            BSD Library Functions Manual                            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 particu-lar particular
     lar 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) and multibyte(3) functions.  This controls recognition of
                  upper and lower case, alphabetic or non-alphabetic characters, and so on.

     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 formatting 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 combination of category and locale makes no sense.

ERRORS
     No errors are defined.

FILES
     $PATH_LOCALE/locale/category
     /usr/share/locale/locale/category  locale file for the locale locale and the category category.

SEE ALSO
     colldef(1), mklocale(1), catopen(3), ctype(3), localeconv(3), multibyte(3), strcoll(3), strxfrm(3),
     euc(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.

BSD                                           November 21, 2003                                          BSD