Need locale arg to strftime()

[wsanchez]

BPO	1219840
Nosy	@brettcannon, @rhettinger

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/brettcannon'
closed_at = <Date 2005-07-11.03:10:09.000>
created_at = <Date 2005-06-13.17:32:02.000>
labels = ['invalid', 'library']
title = 'Need locale arg to strftime()'
updated_at = <Date 2005-07-11.03:10:09.000>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/wsanchez'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2005-07-11.03:10:09.000>
actor = 'brett.cannon'
assignee = 'brett.cannon'
closed = True
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2005-06-13.17:32:02.000>
creator = 'wsanchez'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 1219840
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['25534', '25535', '25536', '25537']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['brett.cannon', 'rhettinger', 'wsanchez']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue1219840'
versions = ['Python 2.4']

[wsanchez]

strftime()'s behavior is dependant on your current locale. Sometimes
this is undesireable, such as when parsing HTTP dates (RFC 2068,
3.3.1), where on is expected to create and parse dates using English
month and week names.

A similar problem exists with the lower() string method.

In either case locale magic isn't always desirable, and it would be
useful to add a locale argument to specify which locale to use.

[rhettinger]

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user_id=80475

Brett, do you want to take this one?

[brettcannon]

Logged In: YES
user_id=357491

There is an issue with this idea. strftime() is just a wrapper around the
ISO C library function. We have no direct control over the locale
handling. This means that the locale used by strftime() is dictated by
the locale that the ISO C libraries think you have.

Best thing to do is to temporarily change the locale to what you need,
use strftime(), and then set the locale back. PEP-342 would be nice for
this. =) At best this is what strftime() would have to do behind the
scenes for you. And the extra overhead is not totally desirable.

[brettcannon]

Logged In: YES
user_id=357491

Since no one can seem to refute my logic I am closing this
as invalid.