Perl 5 version 22.4 documentation

Locale::Country

NAME

Locale::Country - standard codes for country identification

SYNOPSIS

  1.    use Locale::Country;
  3.    $country = code2country('jp' [,CODESET]);        # $country gets 'Japan'
  4.    $code    = country2code('Norway' [,CODESET]);    # $code gets 'no'
  6.    @codes   = all_country_codes( [CODESET]);
  7.    @names   = all_country_names();
  9.    # semi-private routines
  10.    Locale::Country::alias_code('uk' => 'gb');
  11.    Locale::Country::rename_country('gb' => 'Great Britain');

DESCRIPTION

The Locale::Country module provides access to several code sets that can be used for identifying countries, such as those defined in ISO 3166-1.

Most of the routines take an optional additional argument which specifies the code set to use. If not specified, the default ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes will be used.

SUPPORTED CODE SETS

There are several different code sets you can use for identifying countries. A code set may be specified using either a name, or a constant that is automatically exported by this module.

For example, the two are equivalent:

  1.    $country = code2country('jp','alpha-2');
  2.    $country = code2country('jp',LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);

The codesets currently supported are:

  • alpha-2, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2

    This is the set of two-letter (lowercase) codes from ISO 3166-1, such as 'tv' for Tuvalu.

    This is the default code set.

  • alpha-3, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3

    This is the set of three-letter (lowercase) codes from ISO 3166-1, such as 'brb' for Barbados. These codes are actually defined and maintained by the U.N. Statistics division.

  • numeric, LOCALE_CODE_NUMERIC

    This is the set of three-digit numeric codes from ISO 3166-1, such as 064 for Bhutan. These codes are actually defined and maintained by the U.N. Statistics division.

    If a 2-digit code is entered, it is converted to 3 digits by prepending a 0.

  • dom, LOCALE_CODE_DOM

    The IANA is responsible for delegating management of the top level country domains. The country domains are the two-letter (lowercase) codes from ISO 3166 with a few other additions.

NOTE: As of version 3.27, the FIPS code set is no longer supported. See the Locale::Codes::Changes document for details.

ROUTINES

  • code2country ( CODE [,CODESET] [,'retired'])
  • country2code ( NAME [,CODESET] [,'retired'])
  • country_code2code ( CODE ,CODESET ,CODESET2 )
  • all_country_codes ( [CODESET] [,'retired'])
  • all_country_names ( [CODESET] [,'retired'])
  • Locale::Country::rename_country ( CODE ,NEW_NAME [,CODESET] )
  • Locale::Country::add_country ( CODE ,NAME [,CODESET] )
  • Locale::Country::delete_country ( CODE [,CODESET] )
  • Locale::Country::add_country_alias ( NAME ,NEW_NAME )
  • Locale::Country::delete_country_alias ( NAME )
  • Locale::Country::rename_country_code ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
  • Locale::Country::add_country_code_alias ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
  • Locale::Country::delete_country_code_alias ( CODE [,CODESET] )

    These routines are all documented in the Locale::Codes::API man page.

  • alias_code ( ALIAS, CODE [,CODESET] )

    Version 2.07 included 2 functions for modifying the internal data: rename_country and alias_code. Both of these could be used only to modify the internal data for country codes.

    As of 3.10, the internal data for all types of codes can be modified.

    The alias_code function is preserved for backwards compatibility, but the following two are identical:

    1.    alias_code(ALIAS,CODE [,CODESET]);
    2.    rename_country_code(CODE,ALIAS [,CODESET]);

    and the latter should be used for consistency.

    The alias_code function is deprecated and will be removed in the December 2014 release.

    Note: this function was previously called _alias_code, but the leading underscore has been dropped. The old name was supported for all 2.X releases, but has been dropped as of 3.00.

SEE ALSO

  • Locale::Codes

    The Locale-Codes distribution.

  • Locale::Codes::API

    The list of functions supported by this module.

  • Locale::SubCountry

    ISO codes for country sub-divisions (states, counties, provinces, etc), as defined in ISO 3166-2. This module is not part of the Locale-Codes distribution, but is available from CPAN in CPAN/modules/by-module/Locale/

  • http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes.htm

    Official home page for the ISO 3166 maintenance agency.

  • http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm

    The source of ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes used by this module.

  • http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/

    Official source of the top-level domain names.

  • http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49alpha.htm

    The source of the official ISO 3166-1 three-letter codes and three-digit codes.

    For some reason, this table is incomplete! Several countries are missing from it, and I cannot find them anywhere on the UN site. I no longer use this as a source of data.

  • https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/appendix/print_appendix-d.html

    The World Factbook maintained by the CIA is a potential source of the data. Unfortunately, it adds/preserves non-standard codes, so it is no longer used as a source of data.

  • http://www.statoids.com/wab.html

    Another unofficial source of data. Currently, it is not used to get data, but the notes and explanatory material were very useful for understanding discrepancies between the sources.

AUTHOR

See Locale::Codes for full author history.

Currently maintained by Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org).

COPYRIGHT

  1.    Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).
  2.    Copyright (c) 2001-2010 Neil Bowers
  3.    Copyright (c) 2010-2015 Sullivan Beck

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.