Localizing numbers and dates

It is possible to define a localized numbering sequence for use by xsl:number and format-date(). This sequence will be used when you specify a language in the lang attribute of the xsl:number element, or in the third argument of the functions format-date(), format-time(), and format-dateTime(). The feature is primarily intended to provide language-dependent numbers and dates, but in fact it can be used to provide arbitrary numbering sequences.

To implement a numberer for language X, you need to define a class that implements the interface Numberer; usually it will be convenient to write the class as a subclass of the supplied AbstractNumberer. Numberer implementations are supplied for a number of languages, and you can use these as a prototype to write your own.

The languages supplied with the product are:

code	Language
da	Danish
de	German
en	English
fr	French
fr-BE	French (Belgium)
it	Italian
nl	Dutch
nl-BE	Flemish (Belgium)
sv	Swedish

The numbering sequence for English is used by default if no other can be loaded.

Normally your localization class will extend the class AbstractNumberer so that you can reuse functionality like roman numerals which do not need to be localized. Alternatively, if you only want to modify the existing English localization, you could choose to implement a subclass of Numberer_en.

You can override any of the non-private methods in the base class, but the most useful ones to implement are the following:

Method	Effect
ordinalSuffix	Supplies a suffix to be appended to a number to create the ordinal form, for example "1" becomes "1st" in English
toWords	Displays a number in words, in title case: for example "53" becomes "Fifty Three" in English
toOrdinalWords	Displays an ordinal number in words, in title case: for example "53" becomes "Fifty Third" in English
monthName	Displays the name of a month, optionally abbreviated
dayName	Displays the name of a day of the week, optionally abbreviated

The class name can be anything you like, but by convention the Numberer for language LL is named net.sf.saxon.number.Numberer_LL.

The way that the numberer is registered with the Saxon Configuration differs between Saxon-HE on the one hand, and Saxon-PE/EE on the other. On Saxon-HE, you need to supply a LocalizerFactory that responds the request for a particular language: for example:

Configuration config = new Configuration(); config.setLocalizerFactory(new LocalizerFactory() { public Numberer getNumberer(String language, String country) { if (language.equals("jp")) { return Numberer_JP.getInstance(); } else { return null; } } });

You can also use this mechanism on Saxon-PE/HE, but an alternative is to register the localization module in the configuration file.

If you write a comprehensive Numberer for a particular language, please submit it, and we will be happy to include it in future versions of the product as an open-source component. You must agree to release it under the Mozilla Public License or under any other recognized open source license that Saxon might adopt in the future.