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SETLOCALE(3)		     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 particular 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 al-
		  phabetic 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  for-
		  matting  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 strf-
		  time() function.

     Only three locales are defined by default, the empty string  ""  which  de-
     notes 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"  lo-
     cale.   The  only	function  in  the library that sets the locale is setlo-
     cale(); 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.

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

ERRORS
     No errors are defined.

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.

FreeBSD 6.0			November 21, 2003		    SETLOCALE(3)
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