localeconv(3)

💖 localeconv(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the localeconv page — that's localeconv from the Library Functions Manual, and she's here to spill the tea on how your program formats numbers and money. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

localeconv — get numeric formatting information

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🫶 LIBRARY 🫶

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <locale.h>

struct lconv *localeconv(void);

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so like. localeconv() hands you back a pointer to a struct lconv for whatever locale you're currently rocking. that structure is shown in locale(7), and it's holding all the values tied to the locale categories LC_NUMERIC and LC_MONETARY. no cap. 👑

programs can also use printf(3) and strfmon(3), which do their thing according to the actual locale in use. iykyk.

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🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

localeconv() returns a pointer to a filled-in struct lconv. this structure may be — and in glibc, is — statically allocated, and it may be overwritten by subsequent calls. 🙈

according to POSIX, the caller should not modify the contents of this structure. hands off, bestie.

the good news? localeconv() always succeeds. she never misses. 💯

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🦋 ATTRIBUTES 🦋

for an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

• Interface: localeconv()
• Attribute: Thread safety
• Value: MT-Unsafe race:localeconv locale

⚠️ yeah so that's a race condition situation, she's not thread-safe, be careful out there 🫶

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⭐ STANDARDS ⭐

C11.

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🌈 HISTORY 🌈

C89. she's been iconic since forever.

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💀 BUGS 💀

the printf(3) family of functions may or may not honor the current locale. not me finding out it's a coin flip 😭

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

locale(1), localedef(1), isalpha(3), nl_langinfo(3), setlocale(3), strcoll(3), strftime(3), locale(7)

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okay that's the whole page, periodt. 💖 this little gem comes from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08 — go forth and format your numbers correctly, bestie, you got this 🧚✨