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Locale::Language(3)


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.

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