% File src/library/base/man/Sys.localeconv.Rd
% Part of the R package, http://www.R-project.org
% Copyright 1995-2011 R Core Team
% Distributed under GPL 2 or later

\name{Sys.localeconv}
\alias{localeconv}
\alias{Sys.localeconv}
\title{Find Details of the Numerical and Monetary Representations
  in the Current Locale}
\description{
  Get details of the numerical and monetary representations in the
  current locale.
}
\usage{
Sys.localeconv()
}
\details{
  Normally \R is run without looking at the value of \env{LC_NUMERIC},
  so the decimal point remains '\code{.}'.  So the first three of these
  components will only be useful if you have set the locale category
  \code{LC_NUMERIC} using \code{Sys.setlocale} in the current \R session
  (when \R may not work correctly).

  The monetary components will only be set to non-default values (see
  the \sQuote{Examples} section if the \code{LC_MONETARY} category is
  set.  It often is not set: set the examples for how to trigger setting it.
}
\value{
  A character vector with 18 named components.  See your ISO C
  documentation for details of the meaning.

  It is possible to compile \R without support for locales, in which
  case the value will be \code{NULL}.
}
\seealso{
  \code{\link{Sys.setlocale}} for ways to set locales.
}
\examples{
Sys.localeconv()
## The results in the C locale are
##    decimal_point     thousands_sep          grouping   int_curr_symbol
##              "."                ""                ""                ""
##  currency_symbol mon_decimal_point mon_thousands_sep      mon_grouping
##               ""                ""                ""                ""
##    positive_sign     negative_sign   int_frac_digits       frac_digits
##               ""                ""             "127"             "127"
##    p_cs_precedes    p_sep_by_space     n_cs_precedes    n_sep_by_space
##            "127"             "127"             "127"             "127"
##      p_sign_posn       n_sign_posn
##            "127"             "127"

## Now try your default locale (which might be "C").
\dontrun{old <- Sys.getlocale()
## The category may not be set:
## the following may do so, but it might not be supported.
Sys.setlocale("LC_MONETARY", locale = "")
Sys.localeconv()
## or set an appropriate value yourself, e.g.
Sys.setlocale("LC_MONETARY", "de_AT")
Sys.localeconv()
Sys.setlocale(locale = old)}

\dontrun{read.table("foo", dec=Sys.localeconv()["decimal_point"])}
}
\keyword{utilities}
