Locale::Country(3)

NAME
Locale::Country - ISO codes for country identification (ISO 3166)

SYNOPSIS
    use Locale::Country;
    $country = code2country('jp');               # $country gets 'Japan'
    $code    = country2code('Norway');           # $code gets 'no'
    @codes   = all_country_codes();
    @names   = all_country_names();
    # add "uk" as a pseudo country code for United Kingdom
    Locale::Country::_alias_code('uk' => 'gb');

DESCRIPTION
The `Locale::Country' module provides access to the ISO codes for identifying countries, as defined in ISO 3166. You can either access the codes via the the conversion routines entry elsewhere in this document (described below), or with the two functions which return lists of all country codes or all country names.

There are three different code sets you can use for identifying countries: Two letter codes, such as 'tv' for Tuvalu. This code set is identified with the symbol `LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2'. Three letter codes, such as 'brb' for Barbados. This code set is identified with the symbol `LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3'. Numeric codes, such as 064 for Bhutan. This code set is identified with the symbol `LOCALE_CODE_NUMERIC'.

All of the routines take an optional additional argument which specifies the code set to use. If not specified, it defaults to the two-letter codes. This is partly for backwards compatibility (previous versions of this module only supported the alpha-2 codes), and partly because they are the most widely used codes.

The alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes are not case-dependent, so you can use 'BO', 'Bo', 'bO' or 'bo' for Bolivia. When a code is returned by one of the functions in this module, it will always be lower-case.

CONVERSION ROUTINES
There are three conversion routines: `code2country()', `country2code()', and `country_code2code()'. This function takes a country code and returns a string which contains the name of the country identified. If the code is not a valid country code, as defined by ISO 3166, then `undef' will be returned:

    $country = code2country('fi');
This function takes a country name and returns the corresponding country code, if such exists. If the argument could not be identified as a country name, then `undef' will be returned:

    $code = country2code('Norway', LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3);
    # $code will now be 'nor'
The case of the country name is not important. See the section the KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS entry elsewhere in this document below. This function takes a country code from one code set, and returns the corresponding code from another code set.

    $alpha2 = country_code2code('fin',
                 LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3 => LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);
    # $alpha2 will now be 'fi'
If the code passed is not a valid country code in the first code set, or if there isn't a code for the corresponding country in the second code set, then `undef' will be returned.

QUERY ROUTINES
There are two function which can be used to obtain a list of all codes, or all country names: Returns a list of all two-letter country codes. The codes are guaranteed to be all lower-case, and not in any particular order. Returns a list of all country names for which there is a corresponding country code in the specified code set. The names are capitalised, and not returned in any particular order.

Not all countries have alpha-3 and numeric codes - some just have an alpha-2 code, so you'll get a different number of countries depending on which code set you specify.

CODE ALIASING
This module supports a semi-private routine for specifying two letter code aliases.

    Locale::Country::_alias_code( ALIAS => CODE [, CODESET ] )
This feature was added as a mechanism for handling a "uk" code. The ISO standard says that the two-letter code for "United Kingdom" is "gb", whereas domain names are all .uk.

By default the module does not understand "uk", since it is implementing an ISO standard. If you would like 'uk' to work as the two-letter code for United Kingdom, use the following:

    use Locale::Country;
    Locale::Country::_alias_code('uk' => 'gb');
With this code, both "uk" and "gb" are valid codes for United Kingdom, with the reverse lookup returning "uk" rather than the usual "gb".

EXAMPLES
The following example illustrates use of the `code2country()' function. The user is prompted for a country code, and then told the corresponding country name:

    $| = 1;   # turn off buffering
    print "Enter country code: ";
    chop($code = <STDIN>);
    $country = code2country($code, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);
    if (defined $country)
    {
        print "$code = $country\n";
    }
    else
    {
        print "'$code' is not a valid country code!\n";
    }

DOMAIN NAMES
Most top-level domain names are based on these codes, but there are certain codes which aren't. If you are using this module to identify country from hostname, your best bet is to preprocess the country code.

For example, edu, com, gov and friends would map to us; uk would map to gb. Any others?

KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
When using `country2code()', the country name must currently appear exactly as it does in the source of the module. For example,

    country2code('United States')
will return us, as expected. But the following will all return `undef':

    country2code('United States of America')
    country2code('Great Britain')
    country2code('U.S.A.')
If there's need for it, a future version could have variants for country names. In the current implementation, all data is read in when the module is loaded, and then held in memory. A lazy implementation would be more memory friendly.

SEE ALSO
ISO two letter codes for identification of language (ISO 639). ISO three letter codes for identification of currencies and funds (ISO 4217). The ISO standard which defines these codes. Official home page for ISO 3166 Another useful, but not official, home page. An appendix in the CIA world fact book which lists country codes as defined by ISO 3166, FIPS 10-4, and internet domain names.

AUTHOR
Neil Bowers <neilb@cre.canon.co.uk>

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).

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