Locale
The set of regional conventions software uses to read and write values: the order of day and month, the decimal and thousands separators, the currency symbol.
A locale setting belongs to the computer, not the file. The same file opened on two machines with different locales can produce different dates and different numbers without any warning.
Where it comes up
- Ambiguous day and month orderA date such as 03/04/2025 could mean March 4 or April 3, and nothing in the cell says which.
- Mixed date formatsOne column holds dates written in several different styles.
- Numbers stored as textA column of quantities contains symbols, separators, or words that stop software reading it as numbers.
See also
- Decimal separatorThe character that divides the whole part of a number from the fraction. It is a period in the United States, as in 3.14, and a comma in much of Europe, as in 3,14.
- Thousands separatorA character placed between groups of digits to make large numbers easier to read: the comma in 1,250,000. Other conventions use a period, a space, or an apostrophe.
- ParsingReading text and working out its structure: turning the characters 03/04/2025 into a date, or one line of a file into separate fields.