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Locale::Language.3pm

NAME

Locale::Language - ISO two letter codes for language identification (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.

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). Supports 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.

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.