Search code examples
clocale

Getting the current locale's charset in C?

How can I find the current locale's charset in C?

setlocale(LC_ALL, NULL) returns "en_US.UTF8", but is there a way to get the charset? In /etc/locale.gen on my system it lists the locales and the charsets, so it's not in the name.

Solution

  • You can query various parameters of the current locale using the nl_langinfo(3) function. The charset is obtained by calling nl_langinfo(CODESET).

    Note, that you have to call setlocale before using nl_langinfo to make your program locale-aware.