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| Chapter 30 The java.util Package |

## 30.12 java.util.Locale (JDK 1.1)

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The `Locale` class represents a locale: a political, geographical, or cultural region that typically has a distinct language and distinct customs and conventions for such things as formatting dates, times, and numbers.

The `Locale` class defines a number of constants that represent commonly used locales. `Locale` also defines a static `getDefault()` method that returns the default `Locale` object, which represents a locale value inherited from the host system. Furthermore, many locale-sensitive classes, such as `DateFormat`, provide `getAvailableLocales()` methods that return a list of supported `Locale` objects. If none of these methods for obtaining a `Locale` object is suitable, you can also explicitly create your own `Locale` object. To do this, you must specify a language code, a country code, and an optional variant string.

The `Locale` class does not implement any internationalization behavior itself; it merely serves as a locale identifier for those classes that can localize their behavior. Given a `Locale` object, you can invoke the various `getDisplay` methods to obtain a description of the locale suitable for display to a user. Note that these methods may themselves take a `Locale` argument so that the names of languages and countries can be localized as appropriate.

    public final class Locale extends Object implements Cloneable, Serializable {
        // Public Constructors
                public Locale(String language, String country, String variant);
                public Locale(String language, String country);
        // Constants
                public static final Locale CANADA;
                public static final Locale CANADA_FRENCH;
                public static final Locale CHINA;
                public static final Locale CHINESE;
                public static final Locale ENGLISH;
                public static final Locale FRANCE;
                public static final Locale FRENCH;
                public static final Locale GERMAN;
                public static final Locale GERMANY;
                public static final Locale ITALIAN;
                public static final Locale ITALY;
                public static final Locale JAPAN;
                public static final Locale JAPANESE;
                public static final Locale KOREA;
                public static final Locale KOREAN;
                public static final Locale PRC;
                public static final Locale SIMPLIFIED_CHINESE;
                public static final Locale TAIWAN;
                public static final Locale TRADITIONAL_CHINESE;
                public static final Locale UK;
                public static final Locale US;
        // Class Methods
                public static synchronized Locale getDefault();
                public static synchronized void setDefault(Locale newLocale);
        // Public Instance Methods
                public Object clone();  // Overrides Object
                public boolean equals(Object obj);  // Overrides Object
                public String getCountry();
                public final String getDisplayCountry();
                public String getDisplayCountry(Locale inLocale);
                public final String getDisplayLanguage();
                public String getDisplayLanguage(Locale inLocale);
                public final String getDisplayName();
                public String getDisplayName(Locale inLocale);
                public final String getDisplayVariant();
                public String getDisplayVariant(Locale inLocale);
                public String getISO3Country() throws MissingResourceException;
                public String getISO3Language() throws MissingResourceException;
                public String getLanguage();
                public String getVariant();
                public synchronized int hashCode();  // Overrides Object
                public final String toString();  // Overrides Object
    }

### Passed To:

BreakIterator.getCharacterInstance(), BreakIterator.getLineInstance(), BreakIterator.getSentenceInstance(), BreakIterator.getWordInstance(), Calendar(), Calendar.getInstance(), Collator.getInstance(), Component.setLocale(), DateFormat.getDateInstance(), DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(), DateFormat.getTimeInstance(), DateFormatSymbols(), DecimalFormatSymbols(), GregorianCalendar(), Locale.getDisplayCountry(), Locale.getDisplayLanguage(), Locale.getDisplayName(), Locale.getDisplayVariant(), Locale.setDefault(), MessageFormat.setLocale(), NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(), NumberFormat.getInstance(), NumberFormat.getNumberInstance(), NumberFormat.getPercentInstance(), ResourceBundle.getBundle(), SimpleDateFormat(), String.toLowerCase(), String.toUpperCase()

### Returned By:

Applet.getLocale(), BreakIterator.getAvailableLocales(), Calendar.getAvailableLocales(), Collator.getAvailableLocales(), Component.getLocale(), DateFormat.getAvailableLocales(), Locale.getDefault(), MessageFormat.getLocale(), NumberFormat.getAvailableLocales(), Window.getLocale()

java.util.ListResourceBundle (JDK 1.1) |  | java.util.MissingResourceException (JDK 1.1)