Locale categories

A locale file specifies behaviors for the locale categories.

The CTYPE and COLLATION categories primarily affect how the database server stores and retrieves character data in a database. The NUMERIC, MONETARY, and TIME categories affect how a client application formats the internal values of the associated SQL data types. The following table describes the locale categories and the behaviors for the default locale, U.S. English.
Locale category Description In default locale (U.S. English)
CTYPE Controls the behavior of character classification and case conversion. The default code set classifies characters. On UNIX™, the default code set is ISO8859-1. On Windows™, the default code set is Windows Code Page 1252.
COLLATION Controls the behavior of string comparisons. The default locale does not define a localized order. Therefore, the database server collates NCHAR and NVARCHAR data in code-set order (unless SET COLLATION has specified some localized order).
NUMERIC Controls the behavior of non-monetary numeric display formats. The following numeric notation for use in numeric display formats:
  • Thousands separator: comma (,)
  • Decimal separator: period (.)
  • Number of digits between thousands separators: 3
  • Symbol for positive number: plus (+)
  • Symbol for negative number: minus (-)
  • No alternative digits for era-based dates
MONETARY Controls the behavior of currency display formats. The following currency notation for use in monetary display formats:
  • Currency symbol: dollar sign ($) appears as the front symbol before the currency value
  • No back currency symbol is defined.
  • Thousands separator: comma (,)
  • Decimal separator: period (.)
  • Number of digits between thousands separators: 3
  • Symbol for positive number: plus (+)
  • Symbol for negative number: minus (-)
Default scale for MONEY columns: 2
TIME Controls the behavior of date and time display formats. The following date and time display formats:
  • DATE values: %m/%d/%iy
  • DATETIME values: %iY-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
No definitions for era-based dates.
MESSAGES Controls the definitions of affirmative and negative responses to messages. None