The Lame Way to Locale Data (The GNU C Library)

#### 7.7.1 `localeconv`: It is portable but … ¶

Together with the `setlocale` function the ISO C people invented the `localeconv` function. It is a masterpiece of poor design. It is expensive to use, not extensible, and not generally usable as it provides access to only `LC_MONETARY` and `LC_NUMERIC` related information. Nevertheless, if it is applicable to a given situation it should be used since it is very portable. The function `strfmon` formats monetary amounts according to the selected locale using this information.

Function: `struct lconv *` localeconv `(void)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:localeconv locale | AS-Unsafe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `localeconv` function returns a pointer to a structure whose components contain information about how numeric and monetary values should be formatted in the current locale.

  You should not modify the structure or its contents. The structure might be overwritten by subsequent calls to `localeconv`, or by calls to `setlocale`, but no other function in the library overwrites this value.

Data Type: struct lconv ¶

  `localeconv`’s return value is of this data type. Its elements are described in the following subsections.

If a member of the structure `struct lconv` has type `char`, and the value is `CHAR_MAX`, it means that the current locale has no value for that parameter.