Recipe 16.6 Localizing Dates and Times
16.6.1 Problem
You want to display dates and
times in a locale-specific manner.
16.6.2 Solution
Use strftime( )'s
%c format string:
print strftime('%c');
You can also store strftime(
) format strings as messages in your
message catalog:
$MC = new pc_MC_es_US;
print strftime($MC->msg('%Y-%m-%d'));
16.6.3 Discussion
The %c format string tells strftime(
) to return the preferred date and time representation for
the current locale. Here's the quickest way to a
locale-appropriate formatted time string:
print strftime('%c');
This code produces a variety of results:
Tue Aug 13 18:37:11 2002 // in the default C locale
mar 13 ago 2002 18:37:11 EDT // in the es_US locale
mar 13 aoÛ 2002 18:37:11 EDT // in the fr_FR locale
The formatted time string that %c produces, while
locale-appropriate, isn't very flexible. If you just
want the time, for example, you must pass a different format string
to strftime( ). But these format strings
themselves vary in different locales. In some locales, displaying an
hour from 1 to 12 with an A.M./P.M. designation may be appropriate,
while in others the hour should range from 0 to 23. To display
appropriate time strings for a locale, add elements to the
locale's $messages array for each
time format you want. The key for a particular time format, such as
%H:%M, is always the same in each locale. The
value, however, can vary, such as %H:%M for
24-hour locales or %I:%M %P for 12-hour locales.
Then, look up the appropriate format string and pass it to
strftime( ):
$MC = new pc_MC_es_US;
print strftime($MC->msg('%H:%M'));
Changing the locale doesn't change the time zone, it
changes only the formatting of the displayed result.
16.6.4 See Also
Section 3.5 discusses the format strings that
strftime( ) accepts; Section 3.12 covers changing time zones in your program;
documentation on strftime( ) at
http://www.php.net/strftime.
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