LOCALECONV(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual LOCALECONV(3P)PROLOG
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implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
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NAMElocaleconv — return locale-specific information
SYNOPSIS
#include <locale.h>
struct lconv *localeconv(void);
DESCRIPTION
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the
ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here
and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1‐2008
defers to the ISO C standard.
The localeconv() function shall set the components of an object with
the type struct lconv with the values appropriate for the formatting of
numeric quantities (monetary and otherwise) according to the rules of
the current locale.
The members of the structure with type char * are pointers to strings,
any of which (except decimal_point) can point to "", to indicate that
the value is not available in the current locale or is of zero length.
The members with type char are non-negative numbers, any of which can
be {CHAR_MAX} to indicate that the value is not available in the cur‐
rent locale.
The members include the following:
char *decimal_point
The radix character used to format non-monetary quantities.
char *thousands_sep
The character used to separate groups of digits before the deci‐
mal-point character in formatted non-monetary quantities.
char *grouping
A string whose elements taken as one-byte integer values indicate
the size of each group of digits in formatted non-monetary quan‐
tities.
char *int_curr_symbol
The international currency symbol applicable to the current
locale. The first three characters contain the alphabetic inter‐
national currency symbol in accordance with those specified in
the ISO 4217:2001 standard. The fourth character (immediately
preceding the null byte) is the character used to separate the
international currency symbol from the monetary quantity.
char *currency_symbol
The local currency symbol applicable to the current locale.
char *mon_decimal_point
The radix character used to format monetary quantities.
char *mon_thousands_sep
The separator for groups of digits before the decimal-point in
formatted monetary quantities.
char *mon_grouping
A string whose elements taken as one-byte integer values indicate
the size of each group of digits in formatted monetary quanti‐
ties.
char *positive_sign
The string used to indicate a non-negative valued formatted mone‐
tary quantity.
char *negative_sign
The string used to indicate a negative valued formatted monetary
quantity.
char int_frac_digits
The number of fractional digits (those after the decimal-point)
to be displayed in an internationally formatted monetary quan‐
tity.
char frac_digits
The number of fractional digits (those after the decimal-point)
to be displayed in a formatted monetary quantity.
char p_cs_precedes
Set to 1 if the currency_symbol precedes the value for a non-neg‐
ative formatted monetary quantity. Set to 0 if the symbol suc‐
ceeds the value.
char p_sep_by_space
Set to a value indicating the separation of the currency_symbol,
the sign string, and the value for a non-negative formatted mone‐
tary quantity.
char n_cs_precedes
Set to 1 if the currency_symbol precedes the value for a negative
formatted monetary quantity. Set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the
value.
char n_sep_by_space
Set to a value indicating the separation of the currency_symbol,
the sign string, and the value for a negative formatted monetary
quantity.
char p_sign_posn
Set to a value indicating the positioning of the positive_sign
for a non-negative formatted monetary quantity.
char n_sign_posn
Set to a value indicating the positioning of the negative_sign
for a negative formatted monetary quantity.
char int_p_cs_precedes
Set to 1 or 0 if the int_curr_symbol respectively precedes or
succeeds the value for a non-negative internationally formatted
monetary quantity.
char int_n_cs_precedes
Set to 1 or 0 if the int_curr_symbol respectively precedes or
succeeds the value for a negative internationally formatted mone‐
tary quantity.
char int_p_sep_by_space
Set to a value indicating the separation of the int_curr_symbol,
the sign string, and the value for a non-negative internationally
formatted monetary quantity.
char int_n_sep_by_space
Set to a value indicating the separation of the int_curr_symbol,
the sign string, and the value for a negative internationally
formatted monetary quantity.
char int_p_sign_posn
Set to a value indicating the positioning of the positive_sign
for a non-negative internationally formatted monetary quantity.
char int_n_sign_posn
Set to a value indicating the positioning of the negative_sign
for a negative internationally formatted monetary quantity.
The elements of grouping and mon_grouping are interpreted according to
the following:
{CHAR_MAX} No further grouping is to be performed.
0 The previous element is to be repeatedly used for the
remainder of the digits.
other The integer value is the number of digits that comprise the
current group. The next element is examined to determine
the size of the next group of digits before the current
group.
The values of p_sep_by_space, n_sep_by_space, int_p_sep_by_space, and
int_n_sep_by_space are interpreted according to the following:
0 No space separates the currency symbol and value.
1 If the currency symbol and sign string are adjacent, a space sep‐
arates them from the value; otherwise, a space separates the cur‐
rency symbol from the value.
2 If the currency symbol and sign string are adjacent, a space sep‐
arates them; otherwise, a space separates the sign string from
the value.
For int_p_sep_by_space and int_n_sep_by_space, the fourth character of
int_curr_symbol is used instead of a space.
The values of p_sign_posn, n_sign_posn, int_p_sign_posn, and
int_n_sign_posn are interpreted according to the following:
0 Parentheses surround the quantity and currency_symbol or
int_curr_symbol.
1 The sign string precedes the quantity and currency_symbol or
int_curr_symbol.
2 The sign string succeeds the quantity and currency_symbol or
int_curr_symbol.
3 The sign string immediately precedes the currency_symbol or
int_curr_symbol.
4 The sign string immediately succeeds the currency_symbol or
int_curr_symbol.
The implementation shall behave as if no function in this volume of
POSIX.1‐2008 calls localeconv().
The localeconv() function need not be thread-safe.
RETURN VALUE
The localeconv() function shall return a pointer to the filled-in
object. The application shall not modify the structure to which the
return value points, nor any storage areas pointed to by pointers
within the structure. The returned pointer, and pointers within the
structure, might be invalidated or the structure or the storage areas
might be overwritten by a subsequent call to localeconv(). In addi‐
tion, the returned pointer, and pointers within the structure, might be
invalidated or the structure or the storage areas might be overwritten
by subsequent calls to setlocale() with the categories LC_ALL, LC_MONE‐
TARY, or LC_NUMERIC, or by calls to uselocale() which change the cate‐
gories LC_MONETARY or LC_NUMERIC.
ERRORS
No errors are defined.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
The following table illustrates the rules which may be used by four
countries to format monetary quantities.
┌────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│ Country │ Positive Format │ Negative Format │ International Format │
├────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│Italy │ €.1.230 │ −€.1.230 │ EUR.1.230 │
│Netherlands │ € 1.234,56 │ € −1.234,56 │ EUR 1.234,56 │
│Norway │ kr1.234,56 │ kr1.234,56− │ NOK 1.234,56 │
│Switzerland │ SFrs.1,234.56 │ SFrs.1,234.56C │ CHF 1,234.56 │
└────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴──────────────────────┘
For these four countries, the respective values for the monetary mem‐
bers of the structure returned by localeconv() are:
┌───────────────────┬────────┬─────────────┬────────┬─────────────┐
│ │ Italy │ Netherlands │ Norway │ Switzerland │
├───────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼────────┼─────────────┤
│int_curr_symbol │ "EUR." │ "EUR " │ "NOK " │ "CHF " │
│currency_symbol │ "€." │ "€" │ "kr" │ "SFrs." │
│mon_decimal_point │ "" │ "," │ "," │ "." │
│mon_thousands_sep │ "." │ "." │ "." │ "," │
│mon_grouping │ "\3" │ "\3" │ "\3" │ "\3" │
│positive_sign │ "" │ "" │ "" │ "" │
│negative_sign │ "-" │ "-" │ "-" │ "C" │
│int_frac_digits │ 0 │ 2 │ 2 │ 2 │
│frac_digits │ 0 │ 2 │ 2 │ 2 │
│p_cs_precedes │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │
│p_sep_by_space │ 0 │ 1 │ 0 │ 0 │
│n_cs_precedes │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │
│n_sep_by_space │ 0 │ 1 │ 0 │ 0 │
│p_sign_posn │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │
│n_sign_posn │ 1 │ 4 │ 2 │ 2 │
│int_p_cs_precedes │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │
│int_n_cs_precedes │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │
│int_p_sep_by_space │ 0 │ 0 │ 0 │ 0 │
│int_n_sep_by_space │ 0 │ 0 │ 0 │ 0 │
│int_p_sign_posn │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │
│int_n_sign_posn │ 1 │ 4 │ 4 │ 2 │
└───────────────────┴────────┴─────────────┴────────┴─────────────┘
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOfprintf(), fscanf(), isalpha(), isascii(), nl_langinfo(), setlocale(),
strcat(), strchr(), strcmp(), strcoll(), strcpy(), strftime(),
strlen(), strpbrk(), strspn(), strtok(), strxfrm(), strtod(), uselo‐
cale()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <langinfo.h>, <locale.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 LOCALECONV(3P)
