Python locale.normalize() Function

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The Python locale.normalize() function is used to standardize locale strings into a consistent format. This function helps in converting locale names into a normalized form that matches the system's supported locales.

It is particularly useful when dealing with locale settings in applications that need to work across multiple platforms and require a consistent locale format.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of the Python locale.normalize() function −

locale.normalize(locale_name)

Parameters

This function accepts a string as a parameter representing the locale name to be normalized.

Return Value

This function returns a normalized locale string that follows a standard format.

Example 1

Following is an example of the Python locale.normalize() function. Here, we normalize a given locale string −

import locale

normalized_locale = locale.normalize("en_US")
print("Normalized Locale:", normalized_locale)

Following is the output of the above code (output may vary depending on the system) −

Normalized Locale: en_US.ISO8859-1

Example 2

Here, we attempt to normalize different locale strings to observe how they are standardized −

import locale

locales = ["de_DE", "fr_FR.UTF-8", "it_IT@euro"]
for loc in locales:
   print(f"Original: {loc}, Normalized: {locale.normalize(loc)}")

The result produced is as follows (output may vary based on system configuration) −

Original: de_DE, Normalized: de_DE.ISO8859-1
Original: fr_FR.UTF-8, Normalized: fr_FR.UTF-8
Original: it_IT@euro, Normalized: it_IT.ISO8859-15

Example 3

We can use the locale.normalize() function to ensure that locale settings are properly formatted before applying them in applications −

import locale

def set_locale(user_locale):
   try:
      normalized = locale.normalize(user_locale)
      locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, normalized)
      print("Locale set to:", normalized)
   except locale.Error:
      print("Invalid locale!")

set_locale("es_ES")

The output may vary depending on the system but ensures that the locale is set in a valid format.

Example 4

Now, we are using the locale.normalize() function to handle user-provided locale strings dynamically −

import locale

def get_normalized_locale(user_locale):
   return locale.normalize(user_locale)

print("User locale normalized:", get_normalized_locale("ja_JP.UTF-8"))

The result ensures that the provided locale follows a standard format −

User locale normalized: ja_JP.UTF-8