NAME

Locale::SubCountry - Convert state, province, county etc. names to/from ISO 3166-2 codes, get all states in a country

SYNOPSIS

   use Locale::SubCountry;
   
   my $fr = Locale::SubCountry->new('France');
   if ( not $fr )
   {
       die "Invalid country or code: France\n";
   }
   else
   {
       print($fr->country,"\n");        # France
       print($fr->country_code,"\n");   # FR
       print($fr->country_number,"\n"); # 250

       if (  $fr->has_sub_countries )
       {
           print($fr->code('Hautes-Alpes '),"\n");       # 05
           print($fr->full_name('03'),"\n");             # Allier
           my $upper_case = 1;
           print($fr->full_name('02',$upper_case),"\n"); # AINSE
           print($fr->level('02'),"\n");                 # Metropolitan department
           print($fr->level('A'),"\n");                  # Metropolitan region
           print($fr->level('BL'),"\n");                 # Overseas territorial collectivity
           print($fr->levels,"\n");                      # Metropolitan region => 22, Metropolitan department => 96 ...

           my @fr_names  = $fr->all_full_names;    # Ain, Ainse, Allier...
           my @fr_codes   = $fr->all_codes;        # 01, 02, 03 ...
           my %fr_names_keyed_by_code  = $fr->code_full_name_hash;  # 01 => Ain...
           my %fr_codes_keyed_by_name  = $fr->full_name_code_hash;  # Ain => 01 ...

           foreach my $code ( sort keys %fr_names_keyed_by_code )
           {
              printf("%-3s : %s\n",$code,$fr_names_keyed_by_code{$code});            
           }
       }
   }

   # Methods for fetching all country codes and names in the world

   my $world = Locale::SubCountry::World->new();
   my @all_countries     = $world->all_full_names;
   my @all_country_codes = $world->all_codes;

   my %all_countries_keyed_by_name = $world->full_name_code_hash;
   my %all_country_keyed_by_code   = $world->code_full_name_hash;

DESCRIPTION

This module allows you to convert the full name for a country's administrative region to the code commonly used for postal addressing. The reverse look up can also be done.

Lists of sub country codes are useful for web applications that require a valid state, county etc to be entered as part of a users location.

Sub countries are termed as states in the US and Australia, provinces in Canada and counties in the UK and Ireland. Other terms include region, department, city and territory. Countries such as France have several levels of sub countries, such as Metropolitan department, Metropolitan region etc.

Names and ISO 3166-2 codes for all sub countries in a country can be returned as either a hash or an array.

Names and ISO 3166-1 codes for all countries in the world can be returned as either a hash or an array. This in turn can be used to fetch every sub country from every country (see examples/demo.pl).

Sub country codes are defined in "ISO 3166-2, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions".

METHODS

Note that the following methods duplicate some of the functionality of the Locale::Country module (part of the Locale::Codes bundle). They are provided here because you may need to first access the list of countries and ISO 3166-1 codes, before fetching their sub country data. If you only need access to country data, then Locale::Country should be used.

Note also the following method names are also used for sub country objects. (interface polymorphism for the technically minded). To avoid confusion, make sure that your chosen method is acting on the correct type of object.

all_codes
all_full_names
code_full_name_hash
full_name_code_hash

Locale::SubCountry::World->new()

The new method creates an instance of a world country object. This must be called before any of the following methods are invoked. The method takes no arguments.

full_name_code_hash (for world objects)

Given a world object, returns a hash of full name/code pairs for every country, keyed by country name.

code_full_name_hash for world objects)

Given a world object, returns a hash of full name/code pairs for every country, keyed by country code.

all_full_names (for world objects)

Given a world object, returns an array of all country full names, sorted alphabetically.

all_codes (for world objects)

Given a world object, returns an array of all country ISO 3166-1 codes, sorted alphabetically.

Locale::SubCountry->new()

The new method creates an instance of a sub country object. This must be called before any of the following methods are invoked. The method takes a single argument, the name of the country that contains the sub country that you want to work with. It may be specified either by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code or the full name. For example:

AF - Afghanistan
AL - Albania
DZ - Algeria
AO - Angola
AR - Argentina
AM - Armenia
AU - Australia
AT - Austria

If the code is specified, such as 'AU' the format may be in capitals or lower case If the full name is specified, such as 'Australia', the format must be in title case If a country name or code is specified that the module doesn't recognised, it will issue a warning.

country

Returns the current country name of a sub country object. The format is in title case, such as 'United Kingdom'

country_code

Given a sub country object, returns the alpha-2 ISO 3166-1 code of the country, such as 'GB'

code

Given a sub country object, the code method takes the full name of a sub country and returns the sub country's alpha-2 ISO 3166-2 code. The full name can appear in mixed case. All white space and non alphabetic characters are ignored, except the single space used to separate sub country names such as "New South Wales". The code is returned as a capitalised string, or "unknown" if no match is found.

full_name

Given a sub country object, the full_name method takes the alpha-2 ISO 3166-2 code of a sub country and returns the sub country's full name. The code can appear in mixed case. All white space and non alphabetic characters are ignored. The full name is returned as a title cased string, such as "South Australia".

If an optional argument is supplied and set to a true value, the full name is returned as an upper cased string.

level

Given a sub country object, the level method takes the alpha-2 ISO 3166-2 code of a sub country and returns the sub country's level . Examples are city, province,state and district, and usually relates to the a regions size. The level is returned as a string, or "unknown" if no match is found.

has_sub_countries

Given a sub country object, the has_sub_countries method returns 1 if the current country has sub countries, or 0 if it does not. Some small countries such as New Caledonia" do not have sub countries.

full_name_code_hash (for sub country objects)

Given a sub country object, returns a hash of all full name/code pairs, keyed by sub country name. If the country has no sub countries, returns undef.

code_full_name_hash (for sub country objects)

Given a sub country object, returns a hash of all code/full name pairs, keyed by sub country code. If the country has no sub countries, returns undef.

all_full_names (for sub country objects)

Given a sub country object, returns an array of all sub country full names, sorted alphabetically. If the country has no sub countries, returns undef.

all_codes (for sub country objects)

Given a sub country object, returns an array of all sub country alpha-2 ISO 3166-2 codes. If the country has no sub countries, returns undef.

LIMITATIONS

The ISO 3166-2 standard romanizes the names of provinces and regions in non-latin script areas, such as Russia and South Korea. One Romanisation is given for each province name. For Russia, the BGN (1947) Romanization is used.

Several sub country names have more than one code, and may not return the correct code for that sub country. These entries are usually duplicated because the name represents two different types of sub country, such as a province and a geographical unit. Examples are:

AZERBAIJAN : Lankaran; LA (the Municipality), LAN (the Rayon) [see note]
AZERBAIJAN : Saki; SA,SAK [see note]
AZERBAIJAN : Susa; SS,SUS
AZERBAIJAN : Yevlax; YE,YEV
LAOS       : Vientiane VI the Vientiane, VT the Prefecture
MOZAMBIQUE : Maputo; MPM (City),L (Province)

Note: these names are spelt with diacrtic characters (such as two dots above some of the 'a' characters). This causes utf8 errors on some versions of Perl, so they are omitted here. See the Locale::SubCountry::Codes module for correct spelling

AUTHOR

Locale::SubCountry was written by Kim Ryan <kimryan at cpan dot org>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

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

CREDITS

Ron Savage for many corrections to the data

Terrence Brannon produced Locale::US, which was the starting point for this module.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE