Locale::Country(3p)

NAME
Locale::Country - standard codes for country identification

SYNOPSIS
   use Locale::Country;

   $country = code2country('jp' [,CODESET]);        # $country gets 'Japan'
   $code    = country2code('Norway' [,CODESET]);    # $code gets 'no'

   @codes   = all_country_codes( [CODESET]);
   @names   = all_country_names();

   # semi-private routines
   Locale::Country::alias_code('uk' => 'gb');
   Locale::Country::rename_country('gb' => 'Great Britain');

DESCRIPTION
The "Locale::Country" module provides access to several code sets that can be used for identifying countries, such as those defined in ISO 3166-1.

Most of the routines take an optional additional argument which specifies the code set to use. If not specified, the default ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes will be used.

SUPPORTED CODE SETS
There are several different code sets you can use for identifying countries. A code set may be specified using either a name, or a constant that is automatically exported by this module.

For example, the two are equivalent:

   $country = code2country('jp','alpha-2');
   $country = code2country('jp',LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);

The codesets currently supported are:

alpha-2, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2
    This is the set of two-letter (lowercase) codes from ISO 3166-1, such as 'tv' for Tuvalu.

    This is the default code set.

alpha-3, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3
    This is the set of three-letter (lowercase) codes from ISO 3166-1, such as 'brb' for Barbados. These codes are actually defined and maintained by the U.N. Statistics division.

numeric, LOCALE_CODE_NUMERIC
    This is the set of three-digit numeric codes from ISO 3166-1, such as 064 for Bhutan. These codes are actually defined and maintained by the U.N. Statistics division.

    If a 2-digit code is entered, it is converted to 3 digits by prepending a 0.

fips-10, LOCALE_CODE_FIPS
    The FIPS 10 data are two-letter (uppercase) codes assigned by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

dom, LOCALE_CODE_DOM
    The IANA is responsible for delegating management of the top level country domains. The country domains are the two-letter (lowercase) codes from ISO 3166 with a few other additions.

ROUTINES

code2country ( CODE [,CODESET] )
country2code ( NAME [,CODESET] )
country_code2code ( CODE ,CODESET ,CODESET2 )
all_country_codes ( [CODESET] )
all_country_names ( [CODESET] )
Locale::Country::rename_country  ( CODE ,NEW_NAME [,CODESET] )
Locale::Country::add_country  ( CODE ,NAME [,CODESET] )
Locale::Country::delete_country  ( CODE [,CODESET] )
Locale::Country::add_country_alias  ( NAME ,NEW_NAME )
Locale::Country::delete_country_alias  ( NAME )
Locale::Country::rename_country_code  ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
Locale::Country::add_country_code_alias  ( CODE ,NEW_CODE [,CODESET] )
Locale::Country::delete_country_code_alias  ( CODE [,CODESET] )
    These routines are all documented in the Locale::Codes::API man page.

alias_code ( ALIAS, CODE [,CODESET] )
    Version 2.07 included 2 functions for modifying the internal data: rename_country and alias_code. Both of these could be used only to modify the internal data for country codes.

    As of 3.10, the internal data for all types of codes can be modified.

    The alias_code function is preserved for backwards compatibility, but the following two are identical:

       alias_code(ALIAS,CODE [,CODESET]);
       rename_country_code(CODE,ALIAS [,CODESET]);

    and the latter should be used for consistency.

    The alias_code function is deprecated and will be removed at some point in the future.

    Note: this function was previously called _alias_code, but the leading underscore has been dropped. The old name was supported for all 2.X releases, but has been dropped as of 3.00.

SEE ALSO

Locale::Codes
    The Locale-Codes distribution.

Locale::Codes::API
    The list of functions supported by this module.

Locale::SubCountry
    ISO codes for country sub-divisions (states, counties, provinces, etc), as defined in ISO 3166-2. This module is not part of the Locale-Codes distribution, but is available from CPAN in CPAN/modules/by-module/Locale/

http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes
    Official home page for the ISO 3166 maintenance agency.

    Unfortunately, they do not make the actual ISO available for free, so I cannot check the alpha-3 and numerical codes here.

http://www.iso.org/iso/list-en1-semic-3.txt
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm
    The source of ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes used by this module.

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49alpha.htm
    The source of the official ISO 3166-1 three-letter codes and three-digit codes.

    For some reason, this table is incomplete! Several countries are missing from it, and I cannot find them anywhere on the UN site. I get as much of the data from here as I can.

http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/digraphs.htm
    The official list of the FIPS 10 codes.

http://www.iana.org/domains/
    Official source of the top-level domain names.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/appendix/print_appendix-d.html
    The World Factbook maintained by the CIA is a potential source of the data. Unfortunately, it adds/preserves non-standard codes, so it is no longer used as a source of data.

http://www.statoids.com/wab.html
    Another unofficial source of data. Currently, it is not used to get data, but the notes and explanatory material were very useful for understanding discrepancies between the sources.

AUTHOR
See Locale::Codes for full author history.

Currently maintained by Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org).

COPYRIGHT
   Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).
   Copyright (c) 2001-2010 Neil Bowers
   Copyright (c) 2010-2013 Sullivan Beck

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.