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.
