Php get current locale for LC_MONETARY

Question

I'm using this code to display an amount in the current locale.

setlocale(LC_MONETARY, 'it_IT');
echo money_format('%i', $number);

My question is, how can I see the current value for LC_MONETARY ? If I do a simple echo the value seems the same and I can't find any getlocale function.

echo LC_MONETARY;
setlocale(LC_MONETARY, 'it_IT');
echo LC_MONETARY;

Update : LC_MONETARY is the category of function affected so it makes sense the value is the same. But how can I see the current locale info then ?

Answer 1

$oldLocale = setlocale(LC_MONETARY, 'it_IT');
// setlocale() will return the old value if the locale could 
// be set (return value greatly depends on the system's underlying 
// setlocale() implementation)

$oldLocale = setlocale(LC_MONETARY, '0');
// using '0' as the locale-argument will result in the current setting 
//being returned without affecting the locale setting itself

See the note for the $locale parameter in the setlocale() documentation.

Answer 2

The value of the constant LC_MONETARY will never change. When setting a locale with setlocale(LC_MONETARY, ...), you're not changing the LC_MONETARY constant, you're setting the locale for the "monetary" category. This locale setting happens in the background and is not visible outwardly. The LC_MONETARY constant is just an identifier for the category.

Usually you don't need to know what's currently set. You should simply set your desired locale when needed.