setlocale()

Queries or sets locale properties.

  #include <locale.h> 
  char* setlocale(int cat, const char* locale);

Parameter

cat

The property to query or set.

locale

A pointer to the locale.

Remarks

The cat argument specifies the locale property to query or set. The following table lists the values recognized by setlocale().

If locale is a null pointer then setlocale() makes a query. It returns a pointer to a character string that indicates which locale that the cat property is set to. Your program must not modify this character string. Subsequent calls to the function might alter this character string.

If locale is not a null pointer then setlocale() modifies the locale property specified by cat. The character string that locale points to must be a result returned by a previous query to setlocale(). The function returns a pointer to a character string that describes the newly-set locale.

CodeWarrior C compilers and EWL use the "C" locale by default and a native locale named "" (the empty string).

The function returns NULL if it cannot perform a query or set operation. This facility may not be available on some configurations of the EWL.

Table 1. Locale Properties for setlocale()
Value	Locale Property
`LC_ALL`	All properties.
`LC_COLLATE`	Behaviors for `strcoll()`and `strxfrm`.
`LC_CTYPE`	Character manipulation behaviors of facilities in `ctype.h`, `wctype.h`, and `stdlib.h`.
`LC_MONETARY`	Monetary formatting properties returned by `localeconv()`.
`LC_NUMERIC`	Non-monetary numeric formatting properties returned by `localeconv()`.
`LC_TIME`	Behavior for `strftime()`.

Listing: Example of setlocal()


#include <locale.h> 
#include <stdlib.h> 
#include <string.h> 
char* copylocale(int cat); 
char* copylocale(int cat) 
{ 
char* loc; 
char* copy; 
/* Make query. */ 
if ((loc = setlocale(cat, NULL)) == NULL) 
return NULL; /* Query failure. */ 
/* Allocate memory, including null character. */ 
copy = (char*)malloc(strlen(loc) + 1); 
if (copy == NULL) /* Memory failure. */ 
return NULL; 
return strcpy(copy, loc); 
} 
int main(void) 
{ 
char* save; 
if ((save = copylocale(LC_ALL)) == NULL) 
return 1; 
setlocale(LC_ALL, ""); /* Set native locale. */ 
/* ... */ 
setlocale(LC_ALL, save); /* Restore locale. */ 
/* ... */ 
_free(save); 
return 0; 
}