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```{index} single: locale (pragma)
```

# locale

Perl pragma to use or avoid POSIX locales for built-in operations

## SYNOPSIS

```perl
my @x1 = sort @y;      # Native-platform/Unicode code point sort order
{
    use locale;
    my @x2 = sort @y;  # Locale-defined sort order
}
my @x3 = sort @y;      # Native-platform/Unicode code point sort order
                       # again

## Parameters to the pragma are to work around deficiencies in locale
## handling that have since been fixed, and hence these are likely no
## longer useful
use locale qw(:ctype :collate);    # Only use the locale for character
                                   # classification (\w, \d, etc.), and
                                   # for string comparison operations
                                   # like '$a le $b' and sorting.
use locale ':not_characters';      # Use the locale for everything but
                                   # character classification and string
                                   # comparison operations

use locale ':!numeric';            # Use the locale for everything but
                                   # numeric-related operations
use locale ':not_numeric';         # Same

no locale;             # Turn off locale handling for the remainder of
                       # the scope.
```

## DESCRIPTION

This pragma tells the compiler to enable (or disable) the use of POSIX
locales for built-in operations (for example, `LC_CTYPE` for regular
expressions, `LC_COLLATE` for string comparison, and `LC_NUMERIC` for number
formatting).  Each `use locale` or `no locale`
affects statements to the end of the enclosing BLOCK.

The pragma is documented as part of [perllocale](core/perllocale.md).