Locale and Language Information

It is often necessary to get specific information on available languages and locales in order to handle strings appropriately. Each element of locale information has a corresponding LCTYPE constant. To get the locale information, call GetLocaleInfo with the constant that corresponds to the information that is needed.

Most LCTYPE constants are mutually-exclusive, so usually only one type of information can be retrieved at a time. The exceptions to this are LOCALE_NOUSEROVERRIDE, LOCALE_USE_CP_ACP, and LOCALE_RETURN_NUMBER, which can be combined with other LCTYPE constants by using the binary-OR. For more information, see Locale Information.

Locale information is always stored and manipulated as a null-terminated string. No binary data is allowed; any numeric values must be specified as text. Each type of information has a particular format. Also, several of types are linked together, such that changing one changes the value of the other as well.

Although a locale identifier may be supported, it is not available for use by an application unless it is also installed. For more information about LCTYPE constants, see Locale Information.