Introduction
Beyond4P is able to support different locales (regional and language specific settings) which are managed in
a file called "List of locales.csv". This file comes along with the installation package and will be referenced automatically
whenever locale information is needed to carry out a particular function, e.g. converting a date to a string.
The locale settings influence information processing such the following described below:
- Region-specific number formats (choice of decimal and thousand separator symbols)
- Date formats (e.g. MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY as default)
- Weekday and month names in different languages
- Using the right list separator for loading and saving CSV files for interaction with Excel (some countries-specific installations use comma, others use semicolon)
- Currency names and symbols
Specifying locales
Locales typical comprise of a combination of abbreviated language name followed by country name with an underscore symbol inbetween, e.g. "de_CH" for
German language, Switzerland. You may also specifc country or language names only, however they create ambiguitiess with countries where more than
one language is spoken (or better: supported, e.g. Canada), and languages which are spoken in several countries (e.g. English).
For all functions asking for locale parameters, you can specify the locale, the language or the country. No case sensitvity applies, meaning that
both "en_US" and "EN_us" are accepted, as well as "USA" and "usa". If only the language or the country is chosen, then the first match applies.
Therefore, make it a habit to specify locales precisely using the pair of abbreviations.
Special values:
- none = Apply no locale specific context
- local = Apply presently appliable settings, either set during program installation, or modified with set locale() function call.
Functions asking for locales
- str(), soft(): 2nd function parameter
- set locale(): 1st function parameter (must be a locale value, not country or language name alone=)
Supported locales
| Locale | Language | Country | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| none | none | none | Suppresses thousand separator, date is in universally recognized YYYY-MM-DD format |
| en_US | English | USA | Decimal point, 1000-comma, M/D/YYYY |
| en_GB | English | Great Britain | Decimal point, 1000-comma, DD/MM/YYYY |
| en_UK | English | Great Britain | Decimal point, 1000-comma, DD/MM/YYYY (Same as en_GB) |
| en_CA | English | Canada | Decimal point, 1000-comma, DD/MM/YYYY |
| en_DE | English | Germany | Decimal comma, 1000-point, DD/MM/YYYY, weekday and month names are in English |
| en_CH | English | Switzerland | Decimal comma, 1000-point, DD/MM/YYYY, weekday and month names are in English |
| en_AT | English | Austria | Decimal comma, 1000-point, DD/MM/YYYY, weekday and month names are in English |
| en_FR | English | France | Decimal comma, 1000-space, DD/MM/YYYY, weekday and month names are in English |
| en_SE | English | Sweden | Decimal comma, 1000-space, YYYY-MM-DD, weekday and month names are in English |
| en_IN | English | India | Decimal point, 1000-comma, D/M/YYYY, weekday and month names are in English, Note: Different thousand-separation scheme applies in India: 12,34,567.89 |
| in_IN | Indian | India | Decimal point, 1000-comma, D/M/YYYY, Note: Different thousand-separation scheme applies in India: 12,34,567.89 |
| hi_IN | Hindi | India | Decimal point, 1000-comma, D/M/YYYY, Note: Different thousand-separation scheme applies in India: 12,34,567.89 |
| de_CH | German | Switzerland | Decimal point, 1000-apostrophe, DD.MM.YYYY |
| de_CH_HP | German | Switzerland | For HP machines with other settings: Decimal point, 1000-separator with UNICODE 2817 (Typographical Right Single Quotation Mark) |
| de_DE | German | Germany | Decimal comma, 1000-point, YYYY-MM-DD |
| de_AT | German | Austria | Decimal comma, 1000-space, DD.MM.YYYY |
| de_IT | German | Italy | Decimal comma, 1000-point, DD.MM.YYYY, weekday and month names are in German |
| fr_CA | French | Canada | Decimal point, 1000-space, YYYY-MM-DD, weekday and month names are in French |
| fr_FR | French | France | Decimal comma, 1000-space, DD.MM.YYYY |
| fr_CH | French | Switzerland | Decimal comma, 1000-space, DD.MM.YYYY, weekday and month names are in French |
| fr_BE | French | Belgium | Decimal comma, 1000-space, D/MM/YYYY, weekday and month names are in French |
| it_IT | Italian | Italy | Decimal comma, 1000-point, DD/MM/YYYY |
| it_CH | Italian | Switzerland | Decimal point, 1000-apostrophe, DD.MM.YYYY, weekday and month names are in Italian |
| it_CH_HP | Italian | Switzerland | For HP machines with other settings: Decimal point, 1000-separator with UNICODE 2817 (Typographical Right Single Quotation Mark) |
| es_ES | Spanish | Spain | Decimal point, 1000-comma, D/MM/YYYY |
| es_US | Spanish | USA | Decimal point, 1000-comma, M/D/YYYY, weekday and month names are in Spanish |
| sv_SE | Swedish | Sweden | Decimal comma, 1000-space, YYYY-MM-DD |
| nl_NL | Dutch | Netherlands | Decimal comma, 1000-point, DD-MM-YYYY |