Locale
A combination of language and region that determines formatting preferences (e.g., en-US, es-MX).
Definition
A locale is a set of parameters that defines the user's language, country/region, and any special variant preferences. Locales are typically represented as language-region codes following standards like BCP 47 (e.g., en-US for English/United States, zh-CN for Chinese/China). Locales affect how dates, times, numbers, currencies, and collation (sorting) are displayed.
Examples
- →en-US (English, United States) - dates as MM/DD/YYYY, currency as $1,234.56
- →en-GB (English, United Kingdom) - dates as DD/MM/YYYY, currency as £1,234.56
- →de-DE (German, Germany) - numbers as 1.234,56
- →ja-JP (Japanese, Japan) - dates as YYYY/MM/DD
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between language and locale?
Language refers only to the linguistic aspect (en, es, de), while locale includes regional variations (en-US vs en-GB). Two users might speak the same language but need different date formats, currencies, and spelling conventions based on their region.
How are locale codes structured?
Locale codes typically follow BCP 47 standard: language[-script][-region]. Examples: 'en' (English), 'en-US' (English, US), 'zh-Hans-CN' (Chinese, Simplified script, China). The language tag is required, others are optional.