Commit | Line | Data |
6b14ceb7 |
1 | |
2 | =head1 NAME |
3 | |
4 | Locale::Country - ISO codes for country identification (ISO 3166) |
5 | |
6 | =head1 SYNOPSIS |
7 | |
8 | use Locale::Country; |
9 | |
10 | $country = code2country('jp'); # $country gets 'Japan' |
11 | $code = country2code('Norway'); # $code gets 'no' |
12 | |
13 | @codes = all_country_codes(); |
14 | @names = all_country_names(); |
15 | |
917211f5 |
16 | # semi-private routines |
17 | Locale::Country::alias_code('uk' => 'gb'); |
18 | Locale::Country::rename_country('gb' => 'Great Britain'); |
6b14ceb7 |
19 | |
20 | |
21 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
22 | |
23 | The C<Locale::Country> module provides access to the ISO |
917211f5 |
24 | codes for identifying countries, as defined in ISO 3166-1. |
6b14ceb7 |
25 | You can either access the codes via the L<conversion routines> |
26 | (described below), or with the two functions which return lists |
27 | of all country codes or all country names. |
28 | |
29 | There are three different code sets you can use for identifying |
30 | countries: |
31 | |
32 | =over 4 |
33 | |
34 | =item B<alpha-2> |
35 | |
36 | Two letter codes, such as 'tv' for Tuvalu. |
37 | This code set is identified with the symbol C<LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2>. |
38 | |
39 | =item B<alpha-3> |
40 | |
41 | Three letter codes, such as 'brb' for Barbados. |
42 | This code set is identified with the symbol C<LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3>. |
43 | |
44 | =item B<numeric> |
45 | |
46 | Numeric codes, such as 064 for Bhutan. |
47 | This code set is identified with the symbol C<LOCALE_CODE_NUMERIC>. |
48 | |
49 | =back |
50 | |
51 | All of the routines take an optional additional argument |
52 | which specifies the code set to use. |
53 | If not specified, it defaults to the two-letter codes. |
54 | This is partly for backwards compatibility (previous versions |
55 | of this module only supported the alpha-2 codes), and |
56 | partly because they are the most widely used codes. |
57 | |
58 | The alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes are not case-dependent, |
59 | so you can use 'BO', 'Bo', 'bO' or 'bo' for Bolivia. |
60 | When a code is returned by one of the functions in |
61 | this module, it will always be lower-case. |
62 | |
63 | As of version 2.00, Locale::Country supports variant |
64 | names for countries. So, for example, the country code for "United States" |
65 | is "us", so country2code('United States') returns 'us'. |
66 | Now the following will also return 'us': |
67 | |
68 | country2code('United States of America') |
69 | country2code('USA') |
70 | |
71 | |
72 | =head1 CONVERSION ROUTINES |
73 | |
74 | There are three conversion routines: C<code2country()>, C<country2code()>, |
75 | and C<country_code2code()>. |
76 | |
77 | =over 4 |
78 | |
79 | =item code2country( CODE, [ CODESET ] ) |
80 | |
81 | This function takes a country code and returns a string |
82 | which contains the name of the country identified. |
83 | If the code is not a valid country code, as defined by ISO 3166, |
84 | then C<undef> will be returned: |
85 | |
86 | $country = code2country('fi'); |
87 | |
88 | =item country2code( STRING, [ CODESET ] ) |
89 | |
90 | This function takes a country name and returns the corresponding |
91 | country code, if such exists. |
92 | If the argument could not be identified as a country name, |
93 | then C<undef> will be returned: |
94 | |
95 | $code = country2code('Norway', LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3); |
96 | # $code will now be 'nor' |
97 | |
98 | The case of the country name is not important. |
99 | See the section L<KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS> below. |
100 | |
101 | =item country_code2code( CODE, CODESET, CODESET ) |
102 | |
103 | This function takes a country code from one code set, |
104 | and returns the corresponding code from another code set. |
105 | |
106 | $alpha2 = country_code2code('fin', |
3a6b268d |
107 | LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2); |
6b14ceb7 |
108 | # $alpha2 will now be 'fi' |
109 | |
110 | If the code passed is not a valid country code in |
111 | the first code set, or if there isn't a code for the |
112 | corresponding country in the second code set, |
113 | then C<undef> will be returned. |
114 | |
115 | =back |
116 | |
117 | |
118 | =head1 QUERY ROUTINES |
119 | |
120 | There are two function which can be used to obtain a list of all codes, |
121 | or all country names: |
122 | |
123 | =over 4 |
124 | |
125 | =item C<all_country_codes( [ CODESET ] )> |
126 | |
127 | Returns a list of all two-letter country codes. |
128 | The codes are guaranteed to be all lower-case, |
129 | and not in any particular order. |
130 | |
131 | =item C<all_country_names( [ CODESET ] )> |
132 | |
133 | Returns a list of all country names for which there is a corresponding |
134 | country code in the specified code set. |
135 | The names are capitalised, and not returned in any particular order. |
136 | |
137 | Not all countries have alpha-3 and numeric codes - |
138 | some just have an alpha-2 code, |
139 | so you'll get a different number of countries |
140 | depending on which code set you specify. |
141 | |
142 | =back |
143 | |
144 | |
917211f5 |
145 | =head1 SEMI-PRIVATE ROUTINES |
6b14ceb7 |
146 | |
917211f5 |
147 | Locale::Country provides two semi-private routines for modifying |
148 | the internal data. |
149 | Given their status, they aren't exported by default, |
150 | and so need to be called by prefixing the function name with the |
151 | package name. |
6b14ceb7 |
152 | |
917211f5 |
153 | =head2 alias_code |
154 | |
155 | Define a new code as an alias for an existing code: |
156 | |
157 | Locale::Country::alias_code( ALIAS => CODE [, CODESET ] ) |
6b14ceb7 |
158 | |
159 | This feature was added as a mechanism for handling |
160 | a "uk" code. The ISO standard says that the two-letter code for |
161 | "United Kingdom" is "gb", whereas domain names are all .uk. |
162 | |
163 | By default the module does not understand "uk", since it is implementing |
164 | an ISO standard. If you would like 'uk' to work as the two-letter |
165 | code for United Kingdom, use the following: |
166 | |
917211f5 |
167 | Locale::Country::alias_code('uk' => 'gb'); |
6b14ceb7 |
168 | |
169 | With this code, both "uk" and "gb" are valid codes for United Kingdom, |
170 | with the reverse lookup returning "uk" rather than the usual "gb". |
171 | |
917211f5 |
172 | B<Note:> this function was previously called _alias_code, |
173 | but the leading underscore has been dropped. |
174 | The old name will be supported for all 2.X releases for |
175 | backwards compatibility. |
176 | |
177 | =head2 rename_country |
178 | |
179 | If the official country name just isn't good enough for you, |
180 | you can rename a country. For example, the official country |
181 | name for code 'gb' is 'United Kingdom'. |
182 | If you want to change that, you might call: |
183 | |
184 | Locale::Country::rename_country('gb' => 'Great Britain'); |
185 | |
186 | This means that calling code2country('gb') will now return |
187 | 'Great Britain' instead of 'United Kingdom'. |
188 | The original country name is retained as an alias, |
189 | so for the above example, country2code('United Kingdom') |
190 | will still return 'gb'. |
191 | |
6b14ceb7 |
192 | |
193 | =head1 EXAMPLES |
194 | |
195 | The following example illustrates use of the C<code2country()> function. |
196 | The user is prompted for a country code, and then told the corresponding |
197 | country name: |
198 | |
199 | $| = 1; # turn off buffering |
200 | |
201 | print "Enter country code: "; |
202 | chop($code = <STDIN>); |
203 | $country = code2country($code, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2); |
204 | if (defined $country) |
205 | { |
206 | print "$code = $country\n"; |
207 | } |
208 | else |
209 | { |
210 | print "'$code' is not a valid country code!\n"; |
211 | } |
212 | |
213 | =head1 DOMAIN NAMES |
214 | |
215 | Most top-level domain names are based on these codes, |
216 | but there are certain codes which aren't. |
217 | If you are using this module to identify country from hostname, |
218 | your best bet is to preprocess the country code. |
219 | |
220 | For example, B<edu>, B<com>, B<gov> and friends would map to B<us>; |
221 | B<uk> would map to B<gb>. Any others? |
222 | |
223 | =head1 KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS |
224 | |
225 | =over 4 |
226 | |
227 | =item * |
228 | |
229 | When using C<country2code()>, the country name must currently appear |
230 | exactly as it does in the source of the module. The module now supports |
231 | a small number of variants. |
232 | |
233 | Possible extensions to this are: an interface for getting at the |
234 | list of variant names, and regular expression matches. |
235 | |
236 | =item * |
237 | |
238 | In the current implementation, all data is read in when the |
239 | module is loaded, and then held in memory. |
240 | A lazy implementation would be more memory friendly. |
241 | |
242 | =item * |
243 | |
244 | Support for country names in different languages. |
245 | |
246 | =back |
247 | |
248 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
249 | |
250 | =over 4 |
251 | |
252 | =item Locale::Language |
253 | |
254 | ISO two letter codes for identification of language (ISO 639). |
255 | |
256 | =item Locale::Script |
257 | |
258 | ISO codes for identification of scripts (ISO 15924). |
259 | |
260 | =item Locale::Currency |
261 | |
262 | ISO three letter codes for identification of currencies |
263 | and funds (ISO 4217). |
264 | |
917211f5 |
265 | =item Locale::SubCountry |
266 | |
267 | ISO codes for country sub-divisions (states, counties, provinces, etc), |
268 | as defined in ISO 3166-2. |
269 | This module is not part of the Locale-Codes distribution, |
270 | but is available from CPAN in CPAN/modules/by-module/Locale/ |
271 | |
272 | =item ISO 3166-1 |
6b14ceb7 |
273 | |
274 | The ISO standard which defines these codes. |
275 | |
917211f5 |
276 | =item http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.html |
6b14ceb7 |
277 | |
917211f5 |
278 | Official home page for the ISO 3166 maintenance agency. |
6b14ceb7 |
279 | |
280 | =item http://www.egt.ie/standards/iso3166/iso3166-1-en.html |
281 | |
282 | Another useful, but not official, home page. |
283 | |
3a6b268d |
284 | =item http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/app-d-1.html |
6b14ceb7 |
285 | |
286 | An appendix in the CIA world fact book which lists country codes |
287 | as defined by ISO 3166, FIPS 10-4, and internet domain names. |
288 | |
289 | =back |
290 | |
291 | |
292 | =head1 AUTHOR |
293 | |
294 | Neil Bowers E<lt>neil@bowers.comE<gt> |
295 | |
296 | =head1 COPYRIGHT |
297 | |
298 | Copyright (C) 2002, Neil Bowers. |
299 | |
300 | Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE). |
301 | |
302 | This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or |
303 | modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. |
304 | |
305 | =cut |
306 | |