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<refentry xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xml:id="function.setlocale">

<refnamediv>

<refname>setlocale</refname>

<refpurpose>Set locale information</refpurpose>

</refnamediv>

<refsect1 role="description">

&reftitle.description;

<methodsynopsis>

<type class="union"><type>string</type><type>false</type></type><methodname>setlocale</methodname>

<methodparam><type>int</type><parameter>category</parameter></methodparam>

<methodparam><type class="union"><type>string</type><type>null</type></type><parameter>locales</parameter></methodparam>

<methodparam rep="repeat"><type>string</type><parameter>rest</parameter></methodparam>

</methodsynopsis>

<simpara>Alternative signature (not supported with named arguments):</simpara>

<methodsynopsis>

<type class="union"><type>string</type><type>false</type></type><methodname>setlocale</methodname>

<methodparam><type>int</type><parameter>category</parameter></methodparam>

<methodparam><type>array</type><parameter>locale_array</parameter></methodparam>

</methodsynopsis>

<para>

Sets locale information.

</para>

<warning>

<simpara>

The locale information is maintained per process, not per thread. If you

are running PHP on a multithreaded server API,

you may experience sudden changes in locale settings while a

script is running, though the script itself never called

<function>setlocale</function>. This happens due to other scripts

running in different threads of the same process at the same time,

changing the process-wide locale using <function>setlocale</function>.

On Windows, locale information is maintained per thread as of PHP 7.0.5.

</simpara>

</warning>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 role="parameters">

&reftitle.parameters;

<para>

<variablelist>

<varlistentry>

<term><parameter>category</parameter></term>

<listitem>

<para>

<parameter>category</parameter> is a named constant specifying the

category of the functions affected by the locale setting:

<itemizedlist>

<listitem>

<simpara>

<constant>LC_ALL</constant> for all of the below

</simpara>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<simpara>

<constant>LC_COLLATE</constant> for string comparison, see

<function>strcoll</function>

</simpara>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<simpara>

<constant>LC_CTYPE</constant> for character classification and conversion, for

example <function>ctype_alpha</function>

</simpara>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<simpara>

<constant>LC_MONETARY</constant> for <function>localeconv</function>

</simpara>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<simpara>

<constant>LC_NUMERIC</constant> for decimal separator (See also

<function>localeconv</function>)

</simpara>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<simpara>

<constant>LC_TIME</constant> for date and time formatting with

<function>strftime</function>

</simpara>

</listitem>

<listitem>

<simpara>

<constant>LC_MESSAGES</constant> for system responses (available if PHP was compiled with

<literal>libintl</literal>)

</simpara>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><parameter>locales</parameter></term>

<listitem>

<para>

If <parameter>locales</parameter> is the empty string

<literal>""</literal> or is &null;, the locale names will be set from the

values of environment variables with the same names as the above

categories, or from "LANG".

</para>

<para>

If <parameter>locales</parameter> is <literal>"0"</literal>,

the locale setting is not affected, only the current setting is returned.

</para>

<para>

If <parameter>locales</parameter> is followed by additional

parameters then each parameter is tried to be set as

new locale until success. This is useful if a locale is known under

different names on different systems or for providing a fallback

for a possibly not available locale.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><parameter>rest</parameter></term>

<listitem>

<para>

Optional string parameters to try as locale settings until

success.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><parameter>locale_array</parameter></term>

<listitem>

<para>

Each array element is tried to be set as

new locale until success. This is useful if a locale is known under

different names on different systems or for providing a fallback

for a possibly not available locale.

</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

</variablelist>

<note>

<para>

On Windows, setlocale(LC_ALL, '') sets the locale names from the

system's regional/language settings (accessible via Control Panel).

</para>

</note>

</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 role="returnvalues">

&reftitle.returnvalues;

<para>

Returns the new current locale, or &false; if the locale functionality is

not implemented on your platform, the specified locale does not exist or

the category name is invalid.

</para>

<para>

An invalid category name also causes a warning message. Category/locale

names can be found in <link xlink:href="&url.rfc;1766">RFC 1766</link>

and <link xlink:href="&url.iso-639;">ISO 639</link>.

Different systems have different naming schemes for locales.

</para>

<note>

<para>

The return value of <function>setlocale</function> depends

on the system that PHP is running. It returns exactly

what the system <literal>setlocale</literal> function returns.

</para>

</note>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 role="changelog">

&reftitle.changelog;

<informaltable>

<tgroup cols="2">

<thead>

<row>

<entry>&Version;</entry>

<entry>&Description;</entry>

</row>

</thead>

<tbody>

<row>

<entry>8.5.0</entry>

<entry>

Passing an integer <literal>0</literal> as the

<parameter>locales</parameter> argument is no longer supported and

now throws a <classname>TypeError</classname>.

</entry>

</row>

</tbody>

</tgroup>

</informaltable>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 role="examples">

&reftitle.examples;

<para>

<example>

<title><function>setlocale</function> Examples</title>

<programlisting role="php" annotations="non-interactive">

<![CDATA[

<?php

/* Set locale to Dutch */

setlocale(LC_ALL, 'nl_NL');

/* Output: vrijdag 22 december 1978 */

echo strftime("%A %e %B %Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 12, 22, 1978));

/* try different possible locale names for german */

$loc_de = setlocale(LC_ALL, 'de_DE@euro', 'de_DE', 'de', 'ge');

echo "Preferred locale for german on this system is '$loc_de'";

?>

]]>

</programlisting>

</example>

</para>

<para>

<example>

<title><function>setlocale</function> Retrieve current setting</title>

<programlisting role="php" annotations="non-interactive">

<![CDATA[

<?php

/* Retrieve current setting */

$current = setlocale(LC_ALL, null);

echo "Current locale '$current'";

?>

]]>

</programlisting>

</example>

</para>

<para>

<example>

<title><function>setlocale</function> Examples for Windows</title>

<programlisting role="php" annotations="non-interactive">

<![CDATA[

<?php

/* Set locale to Dutch */

setlocale(LC_ALL, 'nld_nld');

/* Output: vrijdag 22 december 1978 */

echo strftime("%A %d %B %Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, 12, 22, 1978));

/* try different possible locale names for german */

$loc_de = setlocale(LC_ALL, 'de_DE@euro', 'de_DE', 'deu_deu');

echo "Preferred locale for german on this system is '$loc_de'";

?>

]]>

</programlisting>

</example>

</para>

</refsect1>

<refsect1 role="notes">

&reftitle.notes;

<tip>

<para>

Windows users will find useful information about

<parameter>locales</parameter> strings at Microsoft's

<acronym>MSDN</acronym> website. Supported language strings can be found

in the

<link xlink:href="&url.setlocale.lang.win32;">language strings documentation</link>

and supported country/region strings in the

<link xlink:href="&url.setlocale.country.win32;">country/region strings documentation</link>.

</para>

</tip>

</refsect1>

</refentry>

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