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Locale.javaAPI DocJava SE 6 API44804Tue Jun 10 00:25:54 BST 2008java.util

Locale

public final class Locale extends Object implements Serializable, Cloneable
A Locale object represents a specific geographical, political, or cultural region. An operation that requires a Locale to perform its task is called locale-sensitive and uses the Locale to tailor information for the user. For example, displaying a number is a locale-sensitive operation--the number should be formatted according to the customs/conventions of the user's native country, region, or culture.

Create a Locale object using the constructors in this class: 

Locale(String language)
Locale(String language, String country)
Locale(String language, String country, String variant)
The language argument is a valid ISO Language Code. These codes are the lower-case, two-letter codes as defined by ISO-639. You can find a full list of these codes at a number of sites, such as:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html

The country argument is a valid ISO Country Code. These codes are the upper-case, two-letter codes as defined by ISO-3166. You can find a full list of these codes at a number of sites, such as:
http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html

The variant argument is a vendor or browser-specific code. For example, use WIN for Windows, MAC for Macintosh, and POSIX for POSIX. Where there are two variants, separate them with an underscore, and put the most important one first. For example, a Traditional Spanish collation might construct a locale with parameters for language, country and variant as: "es", "ES", "Traditional_WIN".

Because a Locale object is just an identifier for a region, no validity check is performed when you construct a Locale. If you want to see whether particular resources are available for the Locale you construct, you must query those resources. For example, ask the NumberFormat for the locales it supports using its getAvailableLocales method.
Note: When you ask for a resource for a particular locale, you get back the best available match, not necessarily precisely what you asked for. For more information, look at {@link ResourceBundle}.

The Locale class provides a number of convenient constants that you can use to create Locale objects for commonly used locales. For example, the following creates a Locale object for the United States: 

Locale.US

Once you've created a Locale you can query it for information about itself. Use getCountry to get the ISO Country Code and getLanguage to get the ISO Language Code. You can use getDisplayCountry to get the name of the country suitable for displaying to the user. Similarly, you can use getDisplayLanguage to get the name of the language suitable for displaying to the user. Interestingly, the getDisplayXXX methods are themselves locale-sensitive and have two versions: one that uses the default locale and one that uses the locale specified as an argument.

The Java Platform provides a number of classes that perform locale-sensitive operations. For example, the NumberFormat class formats numbers, currency, or percentages in a locale-sensitive manner. Classes such as NumberFormat have a number of convenience methods for creating a default object of that type. For example, the NumberFormat class provides these three convenience methods for creating a default NumberFormat object: 

NumberFormat.getInstance()
NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance()
NumberFormat.getPercentInstance()
These methods have two variants; one with an explicit locale and one without; the latter using the default locale. 
NumberFormat.getInstance(myLocale)
NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(myLocale)
NumberFormat.getPercentInstance(myLocale)
A Locale is the mechanism for identifying the kind of object (NumberFormat) that you would like to get. The locale is just a mechanism for identifying objects, not a container for the objects themselves.
see
ResourceBundle
see
java.text.Format
see
java.text.NumberFormat
see
java.text.Collator
author
Mark Davis
since
1.1

Fields Summary
private static final ConcurrentHashMap
cache
public static final Locale
ENGLISH
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
FRENCH
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
GERMAN
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
ITALIAN
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
JAPANESE
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
KOREAN
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
CHINESE
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
SIMPLIFIED_CHINESE
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
TRADITIONAL_CHINESE
Useful constant for language.
public static final Locale
FRANCE
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
GERMANY
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
ITALY
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
JAPAN
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
KOREA
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
CHINA
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
PRC
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
TAIWAN
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
UK
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
US
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
CANADA
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
CANADA_FRENCH
Useful constant for country.
public static final Locale
ROOT
Useful constant for the root locale. The root locale is the locale whose language, country, and variant are empty ("") strings. This is regarded as the base locale of all locales, and is used as the language/country neutral locale for the locale sensitive operations.
static final long
serialVersionUID
serialization ID
private static final int
DISPLAY_LANGUAGE
Display types for retrieving localized names from the name providers.
private static final int
DISPLAY_COUNTRY
private static final int
DISPLAY_VARIANT
private final String
language
private final String
country
private final String
variant
private volatile int
hashcode
Placeholder for the object's hash code. Always -1.
private volatile transient int
hashCodeValue
Calculated hashcode to fix 4518797.
private static Locale
defaultLocale
private static volatile String[]
isoLanguages
private static volatile String[]
isoCountries
Constructors Summary
public Locale(String language, String country, String variant)
Construct a locale from language, country, variant. NOTE: ISO 639 is not a stable standard; some of the language codes it defines (specifically iw, ji, and in) have changed. This constructor accepts both the old codes (iw, ji, and in) and the new codes (he, yi, and id), but all other API on Locale will return only the OLD codes.

param
language lowercase two-letter ISO-639 code.
param
country uppercase two-letter ISO-3166 code.
param
variant vendor and browser specific code. See class description.
exception
NullPointerException thrown if any argument is null.


                                                                                                       
           
        this.language = convertOldISOCodes(language);
        this.country = toUpperCase(country).intern();
        this.variant = variant.intern();
public Locale(String language, String country)
Construct a locale from language, country. NOTE: ISO 639 is not a stable standard; some of the language codes it defines (specifically iw, ji, and in) have changed. This constructor accepts both the old codes (iw, ji, and in) and the new codes (he, yi, and id), but all other API on Locale will return only the OLD codes.

param
language lowercase two-letter ISO-639 code.
param
country uppercase two-letter ISO-3166 code.
exception
NullPointerException thrown if either argument is null.

        this(language, country, "");
public Locale(String language)
Construct a locale from a language code. NOTE: ISO 639 is not a stable standard; some of the language codes it defines (specifically iw, ji, and in) have changed. This constructor accepts both the old codes (iw, ji, and in) and the new codes (he, yi, and id), but all other API on Locale will return only the OLD codes.

param
language lowercase two-letter ISO-639 code.
exception
NullPointerException thrown if argument is null.
since
1.4

        this(language, "", "");
private Locale(String language, String country, boolean flag)
Constructs a Locale using language and country. This constructor assumes that language and contry are interned and it is invoked by createSingleton only. (flag is just for avoiding the conflict with the public constructors.

	this.language = language;
	this.country = country;
	this.variant = "";
Methods Summary
public java.lang.Objectclone()
Overrides Cloneable

        try {
            Locale that = (Locale)super.clone();
            return that;
        } catch (CloneNotSupportedException e) {
            throw new InternalError();
        }
private static java.lang.String[]composeList(java.text.MessageFormat format, java.lang.String[] list)
Given a list of strings, return a list shortened to three elements. Shorten it by applying the given format to the first two elements recursively.

param
format a format which takes two arguments
param
list a list of strings
return
if the list is three elements or shorter, the same list; otherwise, a new list of three elements.

        if (list.length <= 3) return list;

        // Use the given format to compose the first two elements into one
        String[] listItems = { list[0], list[1] };
        String newItem = format.format(listItems);

        // Form a new list one element shorter
        String[] newList = new String[list.length-1];
        System.arraycopy(list, 2, newList, 1, newList.length-1);
        newList[0] = newItem;

        // Recurse
        return composeList(format, newList);
private java.lang.StringconvertOldISOCodes(java.lang.String language)

 
        // we accept both the old and the new ISO codes for the languages whose ISO 
        // codes have changed, but we always store the OLD code, for backward compatibility 
        language = toLowerCase(language).intern(); 
        if (language == "he") { 
            return "iw"; 
        } else if (language == "yi") { 
            return "ji"; 
        } else if (language == "id") { 
            return "in"; 
        } else { 
            return language; 
        }
private static java.util.LocalecreateSingleton(java.lang.String key, java.lang.String language, java.lang.String country)
Creates a Locale instance with the given language and counry and puts the instance under the given key in the cache. This method must be called only when initializing the Locale constants.

	Locale locale = new Locale(language, country, false);
	cache.put(key, locale);
	return locale;
public booleanequals(java.lang.Object obj)
Returns true if this Locale is equal to another object. A Locale is deemed equal to another Locale with identical language, country, and variant, and unequal to all other objects.

return
true if this Locale is equal to the specified object.

        if (this == obj)                      // quick check
            return true;
        if (!(obj instanceof Locale))
            return false;
        Locale other = (Locale) obj;
	return language == other.language
            && country == other.country
            && variant == other.variant;
private static java.lang.StringformatList(java.lang.String[] stringList, java.lang.String listPattern, java.lang.String listCompositionPattern)
Format a list using given pattern strings. If either of the patterns is null, then a the list is formatted by concatenation with the delimiter ','.

param
stringList the list of strings to be formatted.
param
listPattern should create a MessageFormat taking 0-3 arguments and formatting them into a list.
param
listCompositionPattern should take 2 arguments and is used by composeList.
return
a string representing the list.

        // If we have no list patterns, compose the list in a simple,
        // non-localized way.
        if (listPattern == null || listCompositionPattern == null) {
            StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
            for (int i=0; i<stringList.length; ++i) {
                if (i>0) result.append(',");
                result.append(stringList[i]);
            }
            return result.toString();
        }

        // Compose the list down to three elements if necessary
        if (stringList.length > 3) {
            MessageFormat format = new MessageFormat(listCompositionPattern);
            stringList = composeList(format, stringList);
        }

        // Rebuild the argument list with the list length as the first element
        Object[] args = new Object[stringList.length + 1];
        System.arraycopy(stringList, 0, args, 1, stringList.length);
        args[0] = new Integer(stringList.length);

        // Format it using the pattern in the resource
        MessageFormat format = new MessageFormat(listPattern);
        return format.format(args);
public static java.util.Locale[]getAvailableLocales()
Returns an array of all installed locales. The returned array represents the union of locales supported by the Java runtime environment and by installed {@link java.util.spi.LocaleServiceProvider LocaleServiceProvider} implementations. It must contain at least a Locale instance equal to {@link java.util.Locale#US Locale.US}.

return
An array of installed locales.

        return LocaleServiceProviderPool.getAllAvailableLocales();
public java.lang.StringgetCountry()
Returns the country/region code for this locale, which will either be the empty string or an uppercase ISO 3166 2-letter code.

see
#getDisplayCountry

        return country;
public static java.util.LocalegetDefault()
Gets the current value of the default locale for this instance of the Java Virtual Machine.

The Java Virtual Machine sets the default locale during startup based on the host environment. It is used by many locale-sensitive methods if no locale is explicitly specified. It can be changed using the {@link #setDefault(java.util.Locale) setDefault} method.

return
the default locale for this instance of the Java Virtual Machine

        // do not synchronize this method - see 4071298
        // it's OK if more than one default locale happens to be created
        if (defaultLocale == null) {
            String language, region, country, variant;
            language = (String) AccessController.doPrivileged(
                            new GetPropertyAction("user.language", "en"));
            // for compatibility, check for old user.region property
            region = (String) AccessController.doPrivileged(
                            new GetPropertyAction("user.region"));
            if (region != null) {
                // region can be of form country, country_variant, or _variant
                int i = region.indexOf('_");
                if (i >= 0) {
                    country = region.substring(0, i);
                    variant = region.substring(i + 1);
                } else {
                    country = region;
                    variant = "";
                }
            } else {
                country = (String) AccessController.doPrivileged(
                                new GetPropertyAction("user.country", ""));
                variant = (String) AccessController.doPrivileged(
                                new GetPropertyAction("user.variant", ""));
            }
            defaultLocale = getInstance(language, country, variant);
        }
        return defaultLocale;
public final java.lang.StringgetDisplayCountry()
Returns a name for the locale's country that is appropriate for display to the user. If possible, the name returned will be localized for the default locale. For example, if the locale is fr_FR and the default locale is en_US, getDisplayCountry() will return "France"; if the locale is en_US and the default locale is fr_FR, getDisplayCountry() will return "Etats-Unis". If the name returned cannot be localized for the default locale, (say, we don't have a Japanese name for Croatia), this function falls back on the English name, and uses the ISO code as a last-resort value. If the locale doesn't specify a country, this function returns the empty string.

        return getDisplayCountry(getDefault());
public java.lang.StringgetDisplayCountry(java.util.Locale inLocale)
Returns a name for the locale's country that is appropriate for display to the user. If possible, the name returned will be localized according to inLocale. For example, if the locale is fr_FR and inLocale is en_US, getDisplayCountry() will return "France"; if the locale is en_US and inLocale is fr_FR, getDisplayCountry() will return "Etats-Unis". If the name returned cannot be localized according to inLocale. (say, we don't have a Japanese name for Croatia), this function falls back on the English name, and finally on the ISO code as a last-resort value. If the locale doesn't specify a country, this function returns the empty string.

exception
NullPointerException if inLocale is null

        return getDisplayString(country, inLocale, DISPLAY_COUNTRY);
public final java.lang.StringgetDisplayLanguage()
Returns a name for the locale's language that is appropriate for display to the user. If possible, the name returned will be localized for the default locale. For example, if the locale is fr_FR and the default locale is en_US, getDisplayLanguage() will return "French"; if the locale is en_US and the default locale is fr_FR, getDisplayLanguage() will return "anglais". If the name returned cannot be localized for the default locale, (say, we don't have a Japanese name for Croatian), this function falls back on the English name, and uses the ISO code as a last-resort value. If the locale doesn't specify a language, this function returns the empty string.

        return getDisplayLanguage(getDefault());
public java.lang.StringgetDisplayLanguage(java.util.Locale inLocale)
Returns a name for the locale's language that is appropriate for display to the user. If possible, the name returned will be localized according to inLocale. For example, if the locale is fr_FR and inLocale is en_US, getDisplayLanguage() will return "French"; if the locale is en_US and inLocale is fr_FR, getDisplayLanguage() will return "anglais". If the name returned cannot be localized according to inLocale, (say, we don't have a Japanese name for Croatian), this function falls back on the English name, and finally on the ISO code as a last-resort value. If the locale doesn't specify a language, this function returns the empty string.

exception
NullPointerException if inLocale is null

        return getDisplayString(language, inLocale, DISPLAY_LANGUAGE);
public final java.lang.StringgetDisplayName()
Returns a name for the locale that is appropriate for display to the user. This will be the values returned by getDisplayLanguage(), getDisplayCountry(), and getDisplayVariant() assembled into a single string. The display name will have one of the following forms:

language (country, variant)

language (country)

language (variant)

country (variant)

language

country

variant

depending on which fields are specified in the locale. If the language, country, and variant fields are all empty, this function returns the empty string.

        return getDisplayName(getDefault());
public java.lang.StringgetDisplayName(java.util.Locale inLocale)
Returns a name for the locale that is appropriate for display to the user. This will be the values returned by getDisplayLanguage(), getDisplayCountry(), and getDisplayVariant() assembled into a single string. The display name will have one of the following forms:

language (country, variant)

language (country)

language (variant)

country (variant)

language

country

variant

depending on which fields are specified in the locale. If the language, country, and variant fields are all empty, this function returns the empty string.

exception
NullPointerException if inLocale is null

        OpenListResourceBundle bundle = LocaleData.getLocaleNames(inLocale);

        String languageName = getDisplayLanguage(inLocale);
        String countryName = getDisplayCountry(inLocale);
        String[] variantNames = getDisplayVariantArray(bundle, inLocale);

        // Get the localized patterns for formatting a display name.
        String displayNamePattern = null;
        String listPattern = null;
        String listCompositionPattern = null;
        try {
            displayNamePattern = bundle.getString("DisplayNamePattern");
            listPattern = bundle.getString("ListPattern");
            listCompositionPattern = bundle.getString("ListCompositionPattern");
        } catch (MissingResourceException e) {
        }

        // The display name consists of a main name, followed by qualifiers.
        // Typically, the format is "MainName (Qualifier, Qualifier)" but this
        // depends on what pattern is stored in the display locale.
        String   mainName       = null;
        String[] qualifierNames = null;

        // The main name is the language, or if there is no language, the country.
        // If there is neither language nor country (an anomalous situation) then
        // the display name is simply the variant's display name.
        if (languageName.length() != 0) {
            mainName = languageName;
            if (countryName.length() != 0) {
                qualifierNames = new String[variantNames.length + 1];
                System.arraycopy(variantNames, 0, qualifierNames, 1, variantNames.length);
                qualifierNames[0] = countryName;
            }
            else qualifierNames = variantNames;
        }
        else if (countryName.length() != 0) {
            mainName = countryName;
            qualifierNames = variantNames;
        }
        else {
            return formatList(variantNames, listPattern, listCompositionPattern);
        }

        // Create an array whose first element is the number of remaining
        // elements.  This serves as a selector into a ChoiceFormat pattern from
        // the resource.  The second and third elements are the main name and
        // the qualifier; if there are no qualifiers, the third element is
        // unused by the format pattern.
        Object[] displayNames = {
            new Integer(qualifierNames.length != 0 ? 2 : 1),
            mainName,
            // We could also just call formatList() and have it handle the empty
            // list case, but this is more efficient, and we want it to be
            // efficient since all the language-only locales will not have any
            // qualifiers.
            qualifierNames.length != 0 ? formatList(qualifierNames, listPattern, listCompositionPattern) : null
        };

        if (displayNamePattern != null) {
            return new MessageFormat(displayNamePattern).format(displayNames);
        }
        else {
            // If we cannot get the message format pattern, then we use a simple
            // hard-coded pattern.  This should not occur in practice unless the
            // installation is missing some core files (FormatData etc.).
            StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
            result.append((String)displayNames[1]);
            if (displayNames.length > 2) {
                result.append(" (");
                result.append((String)displayNames[2]);
                result.append(')");
            }
            return result.toString();
        }
private java.lang.StringgetDisplayString(java.lang.String code, java.util.Locale inLocale, int type)

        if (code.length() == 0) {
            return "";
        }

        if (inLocale == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }

        try {
            OpenListResourceBundle bundle = LocaleData.getLocaleNames(inLocale);
            String key = (type == DISPLAY_VARIANT ? "%%"+code : code);
            String result = null;

            // Check whether a provider can provide an implementation that's closer 
            // to the requested locale than what the Java runtime itself can provide.
            LocaleServiceProviderPool pool =
                LocaleServiceProviderPool.getPool(LocaleNameProvider.class);
            if (pool.hasProviders()) {
                result = pool.getLocalizedObject(
                                    LocaleNameGetter.INSTANCE,
                                    inLocale, bundle, key,
                                    type, code);
            }

            if (result == null) {
                result = bundle.getString(key);
            }

            if (result != null) {
                return result;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            // just fall through
        }
        return code;
public final java.lang.StringgetDisplayVariant()
Returns a name for the locale's variant code that is appropriate for display to the user. If possible, the name will be localized for the default locale. If the locale doesn't specify a variant code, this function returns the empty string.

        return getDisplayVariant(getDefault());
public java.lang.StringgetDisplayVariant(java.util.Locale inLocale)
Returns a name for the locale's variant code that is appropriate for display to the user. If possible, the name will be localized for inLocale. If the locale doesn't specify a variant code, this function returns the empty string.

exception
NullPointerException if inLocale is null

        if (variant.length() == 0)
            return "";

        OpenListResourceBundle bundle = LocaleData.getLocaleNames(inLocale);

        String names[] = getDisplayVariantArray(bundle, inLocale);

        // Get the localized patterns for formatting a list, and use
        // them to format the list.
        String listPattern = null;
        String listCompositionPattern = null;
        try {
            listPattern = bundle.getString("ListPattern");
            listCompositionPattern = bundle.getString("ListCompositionPattern");
        } catch (MissingResourceException e) {
        }
        return formatList(names, listPattern, listCompositionPattern);
private java.lang.String[]getDisplayVariantArray(sun.util.resources.OpenListResourceBundle bundle, java.util.Locale inLocale)
Return an array of the display names of the variant.

param
bundle the ResourceBundle to use to get the display names
return
an array of display names, possible of zero length.


                                        
          
        // Split the variant name into tokens separated by '_'.
        StringTokenizer tokenizer = new StringTokenizer(variant, "_");
        String[] names = new String[tokenizer.countTokens()];

        // For each variant token, lookup the display name.  If
        // not found, use the variant name itself.
        for (int i=0; i<names.length; ++i) {
            names[i] = getDisplayString(tokenizer.nextToken(), 
                                inLocale, DISPLAY_VARIANT); 
        }

        return names;
private static final java.lang.String[]getISO2Table(java.lang.String table)

	int len = table.length() / 5;
	String[] isoTable = new String[len];
	for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < len; i++, j += 5) {
	    isoTable[i] = table.substring(j, j + 2);
	}
	return isoTable;
private static final java.lang.StringgetISO3Code(java.lang.String iso2Code, java.lang.String table)

	int codeLength = iso2Code.length();
        if (codeLength == 0) {
            return "";
        }

	int tableLength = table.length();
        int index = tableLength;
	if (codeLength == 2) {
	    char c1 = iso2Code.charAt(0);
	    char c2 = iso2Code.charAt(1);
	    for (index = 0; index < tableLength; index += 5) {
		if (table.charAt(index) == c1
		    && table.charAt(index + 1) == c2) {
		    break;
		}
	    }
	}
        return index < tableLength ? table.substring(index + 2, index + 5) : null;
public java.lang.StringgetISO3Country()
Returns a three-letter abbreviation for this locale's country. If the locale doesn't specify a country, this will be the empty string. Otherwise, this will be an uppercase ISO 3166 3-letter country code. The ISO 3166-2 country codes can be found on-line at http://www.davros.org/misc/iso3166.txt.

exception
MissingResourceException Throws MissingResourceException if the three-letter country abbreviation is not available for this locale.

	String country3 = getISO3Code(country, LocaleISOData.isoCountryTable);
        if (country3 == null) {
            throw new MissingResourceException("Couldn't find 3-letter country code for "
                    + country, "FormatData_" + toString(), "ShortCountry");
        }
	return country3;
public java.lang.StringgetISO3Language()
Returns a three-letter abbreviation for this locale's language. If the locale doesn't specify a language, this will be the empty string. Otherwise, this will be a lowercase ISO 639-2/T language code. The ISO 639-2 language codes can be found on-line at http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/englangn.html.

exception
MissingResourceException Throws MissingResourceException if the three-letter language abbreviation is not available for this locale.

	String language3 = getISO3Code(language, LocaleISOData.isoLanguageTable);
        if (language3 == null) {
            throw new MissingResourceException("Couldn't find 3-letter language code for "
                    + language, "FormatData_" + toString(), "ShortLanguage");
        }
        return language3;
public static java.lang.String[]getISOCountries()
Returns a list of all 2-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166. Can be used to create Locales.

        if (isoCountries == null) {
            isoCountries = getISO2Table(LocaleISOData.isoCountryTable);
        }
        String[] result = new String[isoCountries.length];
        System.arraycopy(isoCountries, 0, result, 0, isoCountries.length);
        return result;
public static java.lang.String[]getISOLanguages()
Returns a list of all 2-letter language codes defined in ISO 639. Can be used to create Locales. [NOTE: ISO 639 is not a stable standard-- some languages' codes have changed. The list this function returns includes both the new and the old codes for the languages whose codes have changed.]

        if (isoLanguages == null) {
            isoLanguages = getISO2Table(LocaleISOData.isoLanguageTable);
        }
        String[] result = new String[isoLanguages.length];
        System.arraycopy(isoLanguages, 0, result, 0, isoLanguages.length);
        return result;
static java.util.LocalegetInstance(java.lang.String language, java.lang.String country, java.lang.String variant)
Returns a Locale constructed from the given language, country and variant. If the same Locale instance is available in the cache, then that instance is returned. Otherwise, a new Locale instance is created and cached.

param
language lowercase two-letter ISO-639 code.
param
country uppercase two-letter ISO-3166 code.
param
variant vendor and browser specific code. See class description.
return
the Locale instance requested
exception
NullPointerException if any argument is null.

        if (language== null || country == null || variant == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }

	StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
	sb.append(language).append('_").append(country).append('_").append(variant);
	String key = sb.toString();
	Locale locale = cache.get(key);
	if (locale == null) {
	    locale = new Locale(language, country, variant);
	    Locale l = cache.putIfAbsent(key, locale);
	    if (l != null) {
		locale = l;
	    }
	}
	return locale;
public java.lang.StringgetLanguage()
Returns the language code for this locale, which will either be the empty string or a lowercase ISO 639 code.

NOTE: ISO 639 is not a stable standard-- some languages' codes have changed. Locale's constructor recognizes both the new and the old codes for the languages whose codes have changed, but this function always returns the old code. If you want to check for a specific language whose code has changed, don't do 

if (locale.getLanguage().equals("he"))
...
Instead, do
if (locale.getLanguage().equals(new Locale("he", "", "").getLanguage()))
...

see
#getDisplayLanguage

        return language;
public java.lang.StringgetVariant()
Returns the variant code for this locale.

see
#getDisplayVariant

        return variant;
public inthashCode()
Override hashCode. Since Locales are often used in hashtables, caches the value for speed.

        int hc = hashCodeValue;
        if (hc == 0) {
	    hc = (language.hashCode() << 8) ^ country.hashCode() ^ (variant.hashCode() << 4);
            hashCodeValue = hc;
        }
        return hc;
private java.lang.ObjectreadResolve()
Replace the deserialized Locale object with a newly created object. Newer language codes are replaced with older ISO codes. The country and variant codes are replaced with internalized String copies.

        return getInstance(language, country, variant);
public static synchronized voidsetDefault(java.util.Locale newLocale)
Sets the default locale for this instance of the Java Virtual Machine. This does not affect the host locale.

If there is a security manager, its checkPermission method is called with a PropertyPermission("user.language", "write") permission before the default locale is changed.

The Java Virtual Machine sets the default locale during startup based on the host environment. It is used by many locale-sensitive methods if no locale is explicitly specified.

Since changing the default locale may affect many different areas of functionality, this method should only be used if the caller is prepared to reinitialize locale-sensitive code running within the same Java Virtual Machine.

throws
SecurityException if a security manager exists and its checkPermission method doesn't allow the operation.
throws
NullPointerException if newLocale is null
param
newLocale the new default locale
see
SecurityManager#checkPermission
see
java.util.PropertyPermission

        if (newLocale == null)
            throw new NullPointerException("Can't set default locale to NULL");

        SecurityManager sm = System.getSecurityManager();
        if (sm != null) sm.checkPermission(new PropertyPermission
                        ("user.language", "write"));
            defaultLocale = newLocale;
private java.lang.StringtoLowerCase(java.lang.String str)


    /*
     * Locale needs its own, locale insensitive version of toLowerCase to
     * avoid circularity problems between Locale and String.
     * The most straightforward algorithm is used. Look at optimizations later.
     */
        
	char[] buf = new char[str.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
	    buf[i] = Character.toLowerCase(str.charAt(i));
        }
        return new String( buf );
public final java.lang.StringtoString()
Getter for the programmatic name of the entire locale, with the language, country and variant separated by underbars. Language is always lower case, and country is always upper case. If the language is missing, the string will begin with an underbar. If both the language and country fields are missing, this function will return the empty string, even if the variant field is filled in (you can't have a locale with just a variant-- the variant must accompany a valid language or country code). Examples: "en", "de_DE", "_GB", "en_US_WIN", "de__POSIX", "fr__MAC"

see
#getDisplayName

        boolean l = language.length() != 0;
        boolean c = country.length() != 0;
        boolean v = variant.length() != 0;
        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(language);
        if (c||(l&&v)) {
            result.append('_").append(country); // This may just append '_'
        }
        if (v&&(l||c)) {
            result.append('_").append(variant);
        }
        return result.toString();
private java.lang.StringtoUpperCase(java.lang.String str)

	char[] buf = new char[str.length()];
        for (int i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
	    buf[i] = Character.toUpperCase(str.charAt(i));
        }
        return new String( buf );