PHP Cookbook

Chapter 16. Internationalization and Localization

Introduction

While everyone who programs in PHP has to learn some English eventually to get a handle on its function names and language constructs, PHP can create applications that speak just about any language. Some applications need to be used by speakers of many different languages. Taking an application written for French speakers and making it useful for German speakers is made easier by PHP’s support for internationalization and localization.

Internationalization (often abbreviated I18N^[13]) is the process of taking an application designed for just one locale and restructuring it so that it can be used in many different locales. Localization (often abbreviated L10N^[14]) is the process of adding support for a new locale to an internationalized application.

A locale is a group of settings that describe text formatting and language customs in a particular area of the world. The settings are divided into six categories:

LC_COLLATE

These settings control text sorting: which letters go before and after others in alphabetical order.

LC_CTYPE

These settings control mapping between uppercase and lowercase letters as well as which characters fall into the different character classes, such as alphanumeric characters.

LC_MONETARY

These settings describe the preferred format of currency information, such as what character to use as a decimal point and how to indicate negative amounts.

LC_NUMERIC

These settings describe the preferred ...