MirBSD manpage: Locale::Language(3p)

Locale::Language(Perl Programmers Reference GLocale::Language(3p)

NAME

     Locale::Language - ISO two letter codes for language iden-
     tification (ISO 639)

SYNOPSIS

         use Locale::Language;

         $lang = code2language('en');        # $lang gets 'English'
         $code = language2code('French');    # $code gets 'fr'

         @codes   = all_language_codes();
         @names   = all_language_names();

DESCRIPTION

     The "Locale::Language" module provides access to the ISO
     two-letter codes for identifying languages, as defined in
     ISO 639. You can either access the codes via the "conversion
     routines" (described below), or via the two functions which
     return lists of all language codes or all language names.

CONVERSION ROUTINES

     There are two conversion routines: "code2language()" and
     "language2code()".

     code2language()
         This function takes a two letter language code and
         returns a string which contains the name of the language
         identified. If the code is not a valid language code, as
         defined by ISO 639, then "undef" will be returned.

             $lang = code2language($code);

     language2code()
         This function takes a language name and returns the
         corresponding two letter language code, if such exists.
         If the argument could not be identified as a language
         name, then "undef" will be returned.

             $code = language2code('French');

         The case of the language name is not important. See the
         section "KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS" below.

QUERY ROUTINES

     There are two function which can be used to obtain a list of
     all language codes, or all language names:

     "all_language_codes()"
         Returns a list of all two-letter language codes. The
         codes are guaranteed to be all lower-case, and not in
         any particular order.

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Locale::Language(Perl Programmers Reference GLocale::Language(3p)

     "all_language_names()"
         Returns a list of all language names for which there is
         a corresponding two-letter language code. The names are
         capitalised, and not returned in any particular order.

EXAMPLES

     The following example illustrates use of the
     "code2language()" function. The user is prompted for a
     language code, and then told the corresponding language
     name:

         $| = 1;    # turn off buffering

         print "Enter language code: ";
         chop($code = <STDIN>);
         $lang = code2language($code);
         if (defined $lang)
         {
             print "$code = $lang\n";
         }
         else
         {
             print "'$code' is not a valid language code!\n";
         }

KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

     +   In the current implementation, all data is read in when
         the module is loaded, and then held in memory. A lazy
         implementation would be more memory friendly.

     +   Currently just supports the two letter language codes -
         there are also three-letter codes, and numbers. Would
         these be of any use to anyone?

SEE ALSO

     Locale::Country
         ISO codes for identification of country (ISO 3166). Sup-
         ports 2-letter, 3-letter, and numeric country codes.

     Locale::Script
         ISO codes for identification of written scripts (ISO
         15924).

     Locale::Currency
         ISO three letter codes for identification of currencies
         and funds (ISO 4217).

     ISO 639:1988 (E/F)
         Code for the representation of names of languages.

     http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/langhome.html
         Home page for ISO 639-2.

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Locale::Language(Perl Programmers Reference GLocale::Language(3p)

AUTHOR

     Neil Bowers <neil@bowers.com>

COPYRIGHT

     Copyright (C) 2002-2004, Neil Bowers.

     Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).

     This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
     modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

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