Using Locale Categories for Localization
The localization of a product should be done in consultation with native users in that target language or region. Certain information styles and formats might seem perfectly obvious and universal to the developer. However, to the user these formats could look awkward, wrong, or even offensive. The following sections describe the elements in the Oracle Solaris operating system that you can customize to meet the localization requirements for your product.
Time Formats
The following table shows some of the ways in which different locales write 11:59 P.M.
Table 1–1 International Time Formats|
Locale |
Format |
|---|---|
|
Canadian |
23:59 |
|
Finnish |
23.59 |
|
German |
23.59 Uhr |
|
Norwegian |
23.59 |
|
Thai |
23:59 |
|
British English |
23:59 |
Time is represented by both a 12-hour clock and a 24-hour clock. The hour and minute separator can be either a colon ( : ) or a period ( . ) or a dash ( - ).
Time zone splits occur between and within countries. Although a time zone can be described in terms of how many hours it is ahead of, or behind, Coordinated Universal Time, UTC (or Greenwich Mean Time, GMT), this number is not always an integer. For example, Newfoundland is in a time zone that is half an hour different from the adjacent time zone.
Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts and ends on dates that can vary from country to country. Many countries do not implement DST at all. Additionally, Daylight Savings Time can vary within a time zone. In the U.S. for example, the implementation is a state decision.
Date Formats
The following table shows some of the date formats used around the world. Variations can exist even within a country.
Table 1–2 International Date Formats|
Locale |
Convention |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Canadian (English) |
dd/mm/yy |
16/07/10 |
|
Danish |
dd/mm/yy |
16/07/10 |
|
Finnish |
dd.mm.yyyy |
16.07.2010 |
|
French |
dd/mm/yy |
16/07/10 |
|
German |
dd.mm.yy |
16.07.10 |
|
Italian |
dd/mm/yy |
16/07/10 |
|
Norwegian |
dd.mm.yy |
16.07.10 |
|
Spanish |
dd/mm/yy |
16/07/10 |
|
Swedish |
yyyy-mm-dd |
2010–07–16 |
|
Great Britain |
dd/mm/yyyy |
16/07/2010 |
|
United States |
mm/dd/yy |
07/16/10 |
|
Thai |
mm/dd/yyyy |
07/16/2010 |
Number Formats
Great Britain and the United States are two of the few places in the world that use a period to indicate the decimal place. Many other countries use a comma instead. The decimal separator is also called the radix character. Likewise, while Great Britain and the United States use a comma to separate groups of thousands, many other countries use a period instead, and some countries separate thousands groups with a thin space.
Data files containing locale-specific formats are frequently misinterpreted when transferred to a system in a different locale. For example, a file containing numbers in a French format is not useful to a British-specific program.
The following table shows some commonly used numeric formats.
Table 1–3 International Numeric Conventions|
Locale |
Large Number |
|---|---|
|
Canadian (English) |
4,294,967.00 |
|
Danish |
4.294 967.295,00 |
|
Finnish |
4 294 967 295,00 |
|
French |
4 294 967 295,00 |
|
German |
4,294,967.00 |
|
Italian |
4.294.967,00 |
|
Norwegian |
4.294.967.295,00 |
|
Spanish |
4.294.967.295,00 |
|
Swedish |
4 294 967 295,00 |
|
Great Britain |
4,294,967,295.00 |
|
United States |
4,294,967,295.00 |
|
Thai |
4,294,967,295.00 |
Note –
No particular locale conventions exist that specify how to separate numbers in a list.
International Monetary Formats
Currency units and presentation order vary greatly around the world. Local and international symbols for currency can differ. The following table shows monetary formats in some countries.
Table 1–4 International Monetary Conventions|
Locale |
Currency |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Canadian (English) |
Dollar ($) |
$1,234.56 |
|
Canadian (French) |
Dollar ($) |
1 234,56$ |
|
Danish |
Kroner (kr) |
Kr 1.234,56 |
|
Finnish |
Euro ( |
|
|
French |
Euro ( |
|
|
Japanese |
Yen (¥) |
¥ 1,234 |
|
Norwegian |
Krone (kr) |
kr 1.234,56 |
|
Swedish |
Krona (Kr) |
1 234,56 Kr |
|
Great Britain |
Pound (£) |
£1,234.56 |
|
United States |
Dollar ($) |
$1,234.56 |
|
Thai |
Baht |
2539 Baht |
)
The current release supports the Euro currency. Local currency symbols are still available for backward compatibility.
Table 1–5 User Locales That Support the Euro Currency|
Region |
Locale Name |
ISO Code Set |
|---|---|---|
|
Austria |
de_AT.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Belgium (French) |
fr_BE.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Belgium (Flemish) |
nl_BE.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Denmark |
da_DK.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Estonia |
et_EE.ISO8859–15 |
8859–15 |
|
Finland |
fi_FI.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
France |
fr_FR.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Germany |
de_DE.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Great Britain |
en_GB.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Ireland |
en_IE.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Italy |
it_IT.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Netherlands |
nl_NL.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Portugal |
pt_PT.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Catalan Spain |
ca_ES.ISO8859-15 |
8859–15 |
|
Spain |
es_ES.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
Sweden |
sv_SE.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
|
U.S.A. |
en_US.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Euro locales are based on the ISO8859–15 code set.
Keep in mind that a converted currency amount can require a different amount of space than the original amount, for example, $1,000 can become 1 000,00 Kr.
The current status of the locale settings for locales within the euro zone is illustrated for the LC_MONETARY operand of the locale utility. The status for Germany, for example, is shown in the following table.
Table 1–6 German Locale and Corresponding LC_MONETARY Operand|
Locale |
LC_MONETARY |
|---|---|
|
de_DE.ISO8859–1 |
DM |
|
de_DE.ISO8859–15 |
Euro |
|
de_DE.UTF-8 |
Euro |
|
de_DE.ISO8859–15@euro |
Euro |
|
de_DE.UTF-8@euro |
Euro |
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