Flex Documentation

The locale construct is a set of geographic, language, and variant variables that let an internationalized application dynamically determine how to process and format time and date values, currency values, and other elements in a way that is appropriate for a user. Locale settings control the punctuation and spacing of currency, time and date values, and the unit symbols used with them.

Locale values also determine the character encoding that a web browser uses to render web content, such as Flex applications.

The following systems store separate locale values:

Windows operating system The Windows locale variable value is determined by the Windows language version that is installed. The value determines, among other things, the language in which Windows menus appear. You cannot change the value. Other operating systems use a similar mechanism.

System The system locale variable value is stored within a local computer. In Windows, its default value is the same as the operating system locale. The user can set its value. To change the system locale value, see Changing locale values.

Java default locale The Java default locale variable value determines the language and character encoding that Java uses. Its default value is the same as the system locale. The user can set its value. To change the Java default locale value, see Changing locale values.

Changing locale values

This section describes how to change the locale value.

To change the local computer's system locale value:

1. In the Control Panel, select Regional Options.
2. In the General tab, determine whether the locale you want is selected.
   • If so, go to the next step.
   • If not, install the locale (select the locale and click Apply; the computer prompts you for the Windows disk).
3. In the Regional Option window, in the General tab, select a locale. Click OK.

To change the local computer's Java default locale value:

To change the Java default locale value, do one of the following:

• Set the System Locale to the target value.
• Use command line parameters for the JVM.
• Temporarily change the locale with a Java method call (Locale.setDefault(_locale_)).

To use command line parameters for the JVM, in the jvm.config file, add the following code to the end of the jvm.args line:

-Duser.language=<2-char-language-code> -Duser.region=<2-char-country-code> 

For example, to set language and country code to Japanese, use code such as the following:

-Duser.language=ja -Duser.region=JP

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