LOCALE Phrase

The LOCALE phrase is used to specify the culturally specific locale that is to be used for formatting date and time items.

When the LOCALE phrase is specified without literal-8, the date or time item’s format and separator is completely based on a locale. When the LOCALE phrase is specified with literal-8, literal-8 determines the format of the item, but the value used to replace any conversion specifier that is dependent on a locale for its exact representation (for example, %p) will be based on the locale.

mnemonic-name-3, mnemonic-name-4

If mnemonic-name-3 or mnemonic-name-4 is specified, the locale used for the date or time item is the one associated with mnemonic-name-3 or mnemonic-name-4 in the SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph. If mnemonic-name-3 or mnemonic-name-4 is not specified, the current locale is used. To determine the current locale, refer to the description in the IBM Rational Development Studio for i: ILE COBOL Programmer's Guide.

Mnemonic-name-3 and mnemonic-name-4 must be locale mnemonic names. Locale mnemonic names are specified with the LOCALE clause of the SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph see LOCALE Clause.