1Locale::Codes(3)      User Contributed Perl Documentation     Locale::Codes(3)
2
3
4

NAME

6       Locale::Codes - a distribution of modules to handle locale codes
7

DESCRIPTION

9       Locale-Codes is a distribution containing a set of modules designed to
10       work with sets of codes which uniquely identify something.  For
11       example, there are codes associated with different countries, different
12       currencies, different languages, etc.  These sets of codes are
13       typically maintained in some standard.
14
15       This distribution provides a way to work with these lists of codes.
16       Because the data from the various standards is not available in any
17       sort of consistent API, access to the lists is not available in any
18       direct fashion.  To compensate for this, the list of codes is stored
19       internally within this distribution, and the distribution is updated on
20       a regular basis to include all known codes at that point in time.  This
21       does mean that it is necessary to keep this distribution up-to-date to
22       keep up with the various changes that are made in the various
23       standards.
24
25       Traditionally, a module has been created to work with each type of code
26       sets.  So, there is a module for working with country lists, one for
27       currency lists, etc.  Since version 3.00, all of these individual
28       modules were written as wrappers around a central module (which was not
29       intended to be used directly) which did all of the real work.
30
31       Starting with version 3.50, the central module was reworked slightly to
32       provide an object-oriented interface.  All of the modules for working
33       with individual types of code sets were reworked to use the improved OO
34       module, so the traditional interfaces still work as they always have.
35       As a result, you are free to use the traditional functional (non-OO)
36       interfaces, or to use the OO interface and bypass the wrapper modules
37       entirely.
38
39       Both methods will be supported in the future, so use the one that is
40       best suited to your needs.
41
42       Within each type, any number of code sets are allowed.  For example,
43       sets of country codes are maintained in several different locations
44       including the ISO-3166 standard, the IANA, and by the United Nations.
45       The lists of countries are similar, but not identical.  Multiple code
46       sets are supported, though trying to convert from one code set to
47       another will not always work since the list of countries is not one-to-
48       one.
49
50       All data in all of these modules comes directly from the original
51       standards (or as close to direct as possible), so it should be up-to-
52       date at the time of release.
53
54       I plan on releasing a new version several times a year to incorporate
55       any changes made in the standards. However, I don't always know about
56       changes that occur, so if any of the standards change, and you want a
57       new release sooner, just email me and I'll get one out.
58

SYNOPSIS (OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE)

60          use Locale::Codes;
61          or
62          use Locale::Codes ':constants';
63
64          $obj = new Locale::Codes 'country';
65

OBJECT-ORIENTED METHODS

67       The following methods are available.
68
69       In all methods, when specifying a code set, the name (as a string) is
70       always available.
71
72       Traditionally, you could also use a perl constant to specify the code
73       set.  In order to do so with the OO interface, you have to import the
74       constants.  To do that, load the module with:
75
76          use Locale::Codes ':constants';
77
78       new ( [TYPE [,CODESET]] )
79              $obj = new Locale::Codes;
80              $obj = new Locale::Codes 'country';
81              $obj = new Locale::Codes 'country','alpha-3';
82              $obj = new Locale::Codes 'country',LOCALE_COUNTRY_ALPHA_3;
83
84           This creates a new object that can access the data.  If no type is
85           specified (in the first argument), you must use the type method
86           described below.  No operations will work unless the type is
87           specified.
88
89           The second argument is the default code set to use.  This is
90           optional, as each type has a default code set.  The default code
91           set can be set using the codeset method below.
92
93           The last example is only available if the constants were imported
94           when the module was loaded.
95
96       show_errors ( FLAG )
97              $obj->show_errors(1);
98              $obj->show_errors(0);
99
100           By default, error messages will be produced when bad data is passed
101           to any method.  By passing in '0', these will be turned off so that
102           all failures will be silent.
103
104       type ( TYPE )
105              $obj->type($type)
106
107           This will set the type of codes that will be worked with.  $type
108           may be any of the recognized types of code sets, including:
109
110              country
111              language
112              currency
113              script
114              etc.
115
116           The list of valid types, and the code sets supported in each, are
117           described in the Locale::Codes::Types document.
118
119           This method can be called any number of times to toggle between
120           different types of code sets.
121
122       codeset ( CODESET )
123              $obj->codeset($codeset);
124
125           This sets the default code set to use.  The list of code sets
126           available for each type are described in the Locale::Codes::Types
127           document.
128
129           In all other methods below, when an optional CODESET argument is
130           omitted, it will default to this value.
131
132       code2name ( CODE [,CODESET] [,'retired'] )
133              $name = $obj->code2name($code [,$codeset] [,'retired']);
134
135           This functions take a code and returns a string which contains the
136           name of the element identified.  If the code is not a valid code in
137           the CODESET specified then "undef" will be returned.
138
139           The name of the element is the name as specified in the standard,
140           and as a result, different variations of an element name may be
141           returned for different values of CODESET.
142
143           For example, the alpha-2 country code set defines the two-letter
144           code "bo" to be "Bolivia, Plurinational State of", whereas the
145           alpha-3 code set defines the code 'bol' to be the country "Bolivia
146           (Plurinational State of)". So:
147
148              $obj->code2name('bo','alpha-2');
149                 => 'Bolivia, Plurinational State of'
150
151              $obj->code2name('bol','alpha-3');
152                 => 'Bolivia (Plurinational State of)'
153
154           By default, only active codes will be used, but if the string
155           'retired' is passed in as an argument, both active and retired
156           codes will be examined.
157
158       name2code ( NAME [,CODESET] [,'retired'] )
159              $code = $obj->name2code($name [,$codeset] [,'retired']);
160
161           This function takes the name of an element (or any of it's aliases)
162           and returns the code that corresponds to it, if it exists. If NAME
163           could not be identified as the name of one of the elements, then
164           "undef" will be returned.
165
166           The name is not case sensitive. Also, any known variation of a name
167           may be passed in.
168
169           For example, even though the country name returned using 'alpha-2'
170           and 'alpha-3' country codes for Bolivia are different, either
171           country name may be passed in since for each code set (in addition
172           to the more common alias 'Bolivia'). So:
173
174              $obj->name2code('Bolivia, Plurinational State of','alpha-2');
175                 => bo
176
177              $obj->name2code('Bolivia (Plurinational State of)','alpha-2');
178                 => bo
179
180              $obj->name2code('Bolivia','alpha-2');
181                 => bo
182
183           By default, only active names will be used, but if the string
184           'retired' is passed in as an argument, both active and retired
185           names will be examined.
186
187       code2code ( CODE [,CODESET] ,CODESET2 )
188              $code = $obj->code2code($code [,$codeset] ,$codeset2);
189
190           This function takes a code from one code set (CODESET or the
191           default code set), and returns the corresponding code from another
192           code set (CODESET2). CODE must exists in the code set specified by
193           CODESET and must have a corresponding code in the code set
194           specified by CODESET2 or "undef" will be returned.
195
196              $obj->code2code('fin','alpha-3','alpha-2');
197                 => 'fi'
198
199           Note that this function does NOT support retired codes.
200
201       all_codes ( [CODESET] [,'retired'] )
202              @code = $obj->all_codes([$codeset] [,'retired']);
203
204           This returns a list of all code in the code set. The codes will be
205           sorted.
206
207           By default, only active codes will be returned, but if the string
208           'retired' is passed in as an argument, both active and retired
209           codes will be returned.
210
211       all_names ( [CODESET] [,'retired'] )
212              @name = $obj->all_names([$codeset] [,'retired']);
213
214           This method returns a list of all elements names for which there is
215           a corresponding code in the specified code set.
216
217           The names returned are exactly as they are specified in the
218           standard, and are sorted.
219
220           Since not all elements are listed in all code sets, the list of
221           elements may differ depending on the code set specified.
222
223           By default, only active names will be returned, but if the string
224           'retired' is passed in as an argument, both active and retired
225           names will be returned.
226
227       The following additional methods are available and can be used to
228       modify the code list data (and are therefore not generally useful).
229
230       rename_code  ( CODE ,NEW_NAME [,CODESET] )
231              $flag = $obj->rename_code($code,$new_name [,$codeset]);
232
233           This method can be used to change the official name of an element.
234           At that point, the name returned by the "code2name" method would be
235           NEW_NAME instead of the name specified in the standard.
236
237           The original name will remain as an alias.
238
239           For example, the official country name for code 'gb' is 'United
240           Kingdom'.  If you want to change that, you might call:
241
242              $obj->rename_code('gb', 'Great Britain');
243
244           This means that calling code2name('gb') will now return 'Great
245           Britain' instead of 'United Kingdom'.
246
247           If any error occurs, a warning is issued and 0 is returned. An
248           error occurs if CODE doesn't exist in the specified code set, or if
249           NEW_NAME is already in use but for a different element.
250
251           If the method succeeds, 1 is returned.
252
253       add_code  ( CODE ,NAME [,CODESET] )
254              $flag = $obj->add_code($code,$name [,$codeset]);
255
256           This method is used to add a new code and name to the data.
257
258           Both CODE and NAME must be unused in the data set or an error
259           occurs (though NAME may be used in a different data set).
260
261           For example, to create the fictitious country named "Duchy of Grand
262           Fenwick" with codes "gf" and "fen", use the following:
263
264              $obj->add_code("fe","Duchy of Grand Fenwick",'alpha-2');
265              $obj->add_code("fen","Duchy of Grand Fenwick",'alpha-3');
266
267           The return value is 1 on success, 0 on an error.
268
269       delete_code  ( CODE [,CODESET] )
270              $flag = $obj->delete_code($code [,$codeset]);
271
272           This method is used to delete a code from the data.
273
274           CODE must refer to an existing code in the code set.
275
276           The return value is 1 on success, 0 on an error.
277
278       add_alias  ( NAME ,NEW_NAME )
279              $flag = $obj->add_alias($name,$new_name);
280
281           This method is used to add a new alias to the data. They do not
282           alter the return value of the "code2name" function.
283
284           NAME must be an existing element name, and NEW_NAME must be unused
285           or an error occurs.
286
287           The return value is 1 on success, 0 on an error.
288
289       delete_alias  ( NAME )
290              $flag = $obj->delete_alias($name);
291
292           This method is used to delete an alias from the data. Once removed,
293           the element may not be referred to by NAME.
294
295           NAME must be one of a list of at least two names that may be used
296           to specify an element. If the element may only be referred to by a
297           single name, you'll need to use the "add_alias" method to add a new
298           alias first, or the "remove_code" method to remove the element
299           entirely.
300
301           If the alias is used as the name in any code set, one of the other
302           names will be used instead. Predicting exactly which one will be
303           used requires you to know the order in which the standards were
304           read, which is not reliable, so you may want to use the
305           "rename_code" method to force one of the alternate names to be
306           used.
307
308           The return value is 1 on success, 0 on an error.
309
310       replace_code  ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
311              $flag = $obj->replace_code($code,$new_code [,$codeset]);
312
313           This method is used to change the official code for an element. At
314           that point, the code returned by the "name2code" method would be
315           NEW_CODE instead of the code specified in the standard.
316
317           NEW_CODE may either be a code that is not in use, or it may be an
318           alias for CODE (in which case, CODE becomes and alias and NEW_CODE
319           becomes the "real" code).
320
321           The original code is kept as an alias, so that the "code2name"
322           routines will work with either the code from the standard or the
323           new code.
324
325           However, the "all_codes" method will only return the codes which
326           are considered "real" (which means that the list of codes will now
327           contain NEW_CODE, but will not contain CODE).
328
329       add_code_alias  ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
330              $flag = $obj->add_code_alias($code,$new_code [,$codeset]);
331
332           This method adds an alias for the code. At that point, NEW_CODE and
333           CODE will both work in the "code2name" method. However, the
334           "name2code" method will still return the original code.
335
336       delete_code_alias  ( CODE [,CODESET] )
337           These routines delete an alias for the code.
338
339           These will only work if CODE is actually an alias. If it is the
340           "real" code, it will not be deleted. You will need to use the
341           "rename_code" method to switch the real code with one of the
342           aliases, and then delete the alias.
343

TRADITIONAL INTERFACES

345       In addition the the primary OO module, the following modules are
346       included in the distribution for the traditional way of working with
347       code sets.
348
349       Each module will work with one specific type of code sets.
350
351       Locale::Codes::Country, Locale::Country
352           This includes support for country codes (such as those listed in
353           ISO-3166) to specify the country.
354
355           Because this module was originally distributed as Locale::Country,
356           it is also available under that name.
357
358       Locale::Codes::Language, Locale::Language
359           This includes support for language codes (such as those listed in
360           ISO-639) to specify the language.
361
362           Because this module was originally distributed as Locale::Language,
363           it is also available under that name.
364
365       Locale::Codes::Currency, Locale::Currency
366           This includes support for currency codes (such as those listed in
367           ISO-4217) to specify the currency.
368
369           Because this module was originally distributed as Locale::Currency,
370           it is also available under that name.
371
372       Locale::Codes::Script, Locale::Script
373           This includes support for script codes (such as those listed in
374           ISO-15924) to specify the script.
375
376           Because this module was originally distributed as Locale::Script,
377           it is also available under that name.
378
379       Locale::Codes::LangExt
380           This includes support for language extension codes (such as those
381           listed in the IANA language registry) to specify the language
382           extension.
383
384       Locale::Codes::LangVar
385           This includes support for language variation codes (such as those
386           listed in the IANA language registry) to specify the language
387           variation.
388
389       Locale::Codes::LangFam
390           This includes support for language family codes (such as those
391           listed in ISO 639-5) to specify families of languages.
392
393       In addition to the modules above, there are a number of support modules
394       included in the distribution.  Any module not listed above falls into
395       that category.
396
397       These modules are not intended to be used by programmers. They contain
398       functions or data that are used by the modules listed above.  No
399       support of any kind is offered for using these modules directly.  They
400       may be modified at any time.
401

COMMON ALIASES

403       As of version 2.00, the modules supported common variants of names.
404
405       For example, Locale::Country supports variant names for countries, and
406       a few of the most common ones are included in the data. The country
407       code for "United States" is "us", so:
408
409          country2code('United States');
410            => "us"
411
412       Now the following will also return 'us':
413
414          country2code('United States of America');
415          country2code('USA');
416
417       Any number of common aliases may be included in the data, in addition
418       to the names that come directly from the standards.  If you have a
419       common alias for a country, language, or any other of the types of
420       codes, let me know and I'll add it, with some restrictions.
421
422       For example, the country name "North Korea" never appeared in any of
423       the official sources (instead, it was "Korea, North" or "Korea,
424       Democratic People's Republic of". I would honor a request to add an
425       alias "North Korea" since that's a very common way to specify the
426       country (please don't request this... I've already added it).
427
428       On the other hand, a request to add Zaire as an alias for "Congo, The
429       Democratic Republic of" will not be honored. The country's official
430       name is no longer Zaire, so adding it as an alias violates the
431       standard.  Zaire was kept as an alias in versions of this module prior
432       to 3.00, but it has been removed. Other aliases (if any) which no
433       longer appear in any standard (and which are not common variations of
434       the name in the standards) have also been removed.
435

RETIRED CODES

437       Occasionally, a code is deprecated, but it may still be desirable to
438       have access to it.
439
440       Although there is no way to see every code that has ever existed and
441       been deprecated (since most codesets do not have that information
442       available), as of version 3.20, every code which has ever been included
443       in these modules can be referenced.
444
445       For more information, refer to the documentation on the code2name,
446       name2code, all_codes, and all_names methods above.
447

SEE ALSO

449       Locale::Codes::Types
450           The list of all code sets available for each type.
451
452       Locale::Codes::Changes
453           A history of changes made to this distribution.
454

KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

456       Relationship between code sets
457           Because each code set uses a slightly different list of elements,
458           and they are not necessarily one-to-one, there may be some
459           confusion about the relationship between codes from different code
460           sets.
461
462           For example, ISO 3166 assigns one code to the country "United
463           States Minor Outlying Islands", but the IANA codes give different
464           codes to different islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, etc.).
465
466           This may cause some confusion... I've done the best that I could do
467           to minimize it.
468
469       Non-ASCII characters not supported
470           Currently all names must be all ASCII. I plan on relaxing that
471           limitation in the future.
472

BUGS AND QUESTIONS

474       If you find a bug in Locale::Codes, there are three ways to send it to
475       me.  Any of them are fine, so use the method that is easiest for you.
476
477       Direct email
478           You are welcome to send it directly to me by email.  The email
479           address to use is:  sbeck@cpan.org.
480
481       CPAN Bug Tracking
482           You can submit it using the CPAN tracking tool.  This can be done
483           at the following URL:
484
485           <http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Locale-Codes>
486
487       GitHub
488           You can submit it as an issue on GitHub.  This can be done at the
489           following URL:
490
491           <https://github.com/SBECK-github/Locale-Codes>
492
493       Please do not use other means to report bugs (such as forums for a
494       specific OS or Linux distribution) as it is impossible for me to keep
495       up with all of them.  These are the current methods that are guaranteed
496       to notify me.
497
498       When filing a bug report, please include the following information:
499
500       Locale::Codes version
501           Please include the version of Locale::Codes you are using.  You can
502           get this by using the script:
503
504              use Locale::Codes;
505              print $Locale::Codes::VERSION,"\n";
506
507       If you want to report missing or incorrect codes, you must be running
508       the most recent version of Locale::Codes.
509
510       If you find any problems with the documentation (errors, typos, or
511       items that are not clear), please send them to me. I welcome any
512       suggestions that will allow me to improve the documentation.
513

AUTHOR

515       Locale::Country and Locale::Language were originally written by Neil
516       Bowers at the Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE). They maintained the
517       distribution from 1997 to 2001.
518
519       Locale::Currency was originally written by Michael Hennecke and was
520       modified by Neil Bowers for inclusion in the distribution.
521
522       From 2001 to 2004, maintenance was continued by Neil Bowers.  He
523       modified Locale::Currency for inclusion in the distribution. He also
524       added Locale::Script.
525
526       From 2004-2009, the module was unmaintained.
527
528       In 2010, maintenance was taken over by Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org)
529       with Neil Bower's permission.  All problems or comments should be sent
530       to him using any of the methods listed above.
531
533          Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).
534          Copyright (c) 2001      Michael Hennecke (Locale::Currency)
535          Copyright (c) 2001-2010 Neil Bowers
536          Copyright (c) 2010-2019 Sullivan Beck
537
538       This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
539       under the same terms as Perl itself.
540
541
542
543perl v5.30.0                      2019-08-30                  Locale::Codes(3)
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