man Locale::SubCountry (3): Convert state, province, county etc. names to/from ISO 3166-2 codes

SYNOPSIS

my $country_code = 'GB';
my $UK = Locale::SubCountry->new($country_code);
if ( not $UK )
{
die "Invalid code $country_code\n";
}
elsif ( $UK->has_sub_countries )
{
print($UK->full_name('DGY'),"\n"); # Dumfries and Galloway
print($UK->regional_division('DGY'),"\n"); # SCT (Scotland)
}
my $australia = Locale::SubCountry->new('Australia');
if ( not $australia )
{
die "Invalid code: Australia\n";
}
else
{
print($australia->country,"\n"); # Australia
print($australia->country_code,"\n"); # AU
if ( $australia->has_sub_countries )
{
print($australia->code('New South Wales '),"\n"); # NSW
print($australia->full_name('S.A.'),"\n"); # South Australia
my $upper_case = 1;
print($australia->full_name('Qld',$upper_case),"\n"); # QUEENSLAND
print($australia->category('NSW'),"\n"); # state
print($australia->FIPS10_4_code('ACT'),"\n"); # 01
print($australia->ISO3166_2_code('02'),"\n"); # NSW
my @aus_state_names = $australia->all_full_names;
my @aus_code_names = $australia->all_codes;
my %aus_states_keyed_by_code = $australia->code_full_name_hash;
my %aus_states_keyed_by_name = $australia->full_name_code_hash;
foreach my $code ( sort keys %aus_states_keyed_by_code )
{
printf("%-3s : %s\n",$code,$aus_states_keyed_by_code{$code});
}
}
}
# Methods for country codes and names
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 countries administrative region to the code commonly used for postal addressing. The reverse lookup can also be done. Sub country codes are defined in ``ISO 3166-2:2007, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions''.

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.

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.

ISO 3166-2 codes can be converted to FIPS 10-4 codes. The reverse lookup can also be done.

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 available 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 IS) 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 two letter 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 of a sub country object, the format is title case

country_code

Given a sub country object, returns the two letter ISO 3166-1 code of the country

code

Given a sub country object, the "code" method takes the full name of a sub country and returns the sub country's 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 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.

regional_division

Given a sub country object, the "regional_division" method takes the ISO 3166-2 code of a sub country and returns the sub country's regional_division. This is an alphanumeric code. The regional_division is returned as a capitalised 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 Singapore do not have sub countries.

FIPS10_4_code

NOTE: On September 2, 2008, FIPS 10-4 was one of ten standards withdrawn by NIST as a Federal Information Processing Standard. It may not be supported by this module in the future.

Given a sub country object, the "FIPS_10_4_code" method takes the ISO 3166-2 code of a sub country and returns the sub country's FIPS 10-4 code, or the string 'unknown', if none exists. FIPS is a standard developed by the US government.

ISO3166_2_code

Given a sub country object, the "ISO3166_2_code" method takes the FIPS 10-4 code of a sub country and returns the sub country's ISO 3166-2 code, or the string 'unknown', if none exists.

full_name_code_hash (for subcountry 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 subcountry 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 subcountry 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 subcountry objects)

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

LIMITATIONS

ISO 3166-2:2007 defines all sub country codes as being up to 3 letters and/or numbers. These codes are commonly accepted for countries like the USA and Canada. In Australia this method of abbreviation is not widely accepted. For example, the ISO code for 'New South Wales' is 'NS', but 'NSW' is the abbreviation that is most commonly used. I could add a flag to enforce ISO-3166-2 codes if needed.

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 City), LAN (the Rayon) [see note]
    AZERBAIJAN : Saki; SA,SAK [see note]
    AZERBAIJAN : Susa; SS,SUS
    AZERBAIJAN : Yevlax; YE,YEV
    INDONESIA  : Kalimantan Timur; KI,KT
    LAOS       : Vientiane VI,VT
    MOLDOVA    : Hahul; CA,CHL
    MOLDOVA    : Bubasari; DU,DBI
    MOLDOVA    : Hrhei; OR,OHI
    MOLDOVA    : Coroca; SO,SOA
    MOLDOVA    : Gngheni; UN,UGI
    MOZAMBIQUE : Maputo; MPM,L

Note: these names are spelt with a diaeresis character (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::Data module for correct spelling

FIPS codes are not provided for all sub countries.

AUTHOR

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

CREDITS

Ron Savage for many corrections to the data

Alastair McKinstry provided many of the sub country codes and names.

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

Mark Summerfield and Guy Fraser provided the list of UK counties.

TJ Mather supplied the FIPS codes and many amendments to the sub country data

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

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