When in Rome...dates appear in Italian! To support global documents and international formatting of dates and numbers, Athennian coders are able to use the following localization functions to translate and format such variables into the right language conventions. For both of these functions, we will be using the ISO time codes, a comprehensive list of which may be found here.

The major advantage of using these localized functions is that the localized language may be specified in one of two ways:

1. by conforming to the language setting as defined for the specific template, or
2. by forcing a specific language by using the appropriate UTC locale code enclosed in ‘single quotes’.

International Date Formatting with localeTime

The localeTime function is able to match different localized conventions of date formatting, including translating date elements into the specified language.

International Number Formatting with localeNumber

The localeNumber function will translate number type data into jurisdiction-specific language requirements. For example, in French, thousandths and millionths places are separated with a space rather than using commaSeparate as English does (eg. 1 000 vs 1,000), while decimal places are denoted with a comma rather than periods as English does (eg. 1,25 vs 1.25).

Syntax

Using the Template's Language Settings

Using the code templateConfig.language, you can translate the formatting to the language specified in the template manager settings for the document. For example, this document has French set as the language.

Note: When using the localization functions with templateConfig.language, it is necessary to use the tilde (~) in order for the qualifier to refer accurately to the template setting language. 

localeTime Syntax with ~templateConfig.language

{dateVariable | localeTime:'dateElements': ~templateConfig.language}

You can also use the appropriate ISO language code to force the language to a certain locale. To specify a language’s standard number format, qualify the localeNumber function with the 4-letter ISO language code in 'single quotes.'

localeTime Syntax with Locale Code

{dateVariable | localeTime:'dateElements':'languageCode'}

localeNumber Syntax with Locale Code

{numberVariable | localeNumber:'languageCode'}

Date Elements

Please note the following differences between localized date elements and English date element codes (ie. the difference between using localeTime vs time functions):