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title: "Locale" sidebar_position: 12

Locale

A file's locale says how its numbers, dates, currency and formulas are typed and shown, as File > Settings > Locale does in Google Sheets. In German (Germany) a sheet shows 1.234,56 € and 26.9.2026, takes 1,5 as a number, and formulas separate their arguments with ;: =ROUND(A1*1,19; 2).

A sheet in German (Germany)

Choosing one

File > Settings > Locale lists the locales with a sample of each; type a language, country or tag to narrow it, Enter picks. The first entry, Default, follows the locale setting, which new sheets use and which reads LC_ALL, LC_NUMERIC or LANG (de_DE.UTF-8) when nothing sets it. A locale picked here is saved in the file, marks it modified and undoes with Ctrl+Z.

Tag Locale Number Date Currency
en-US English (United States) 1,234.56 9/26/2026 $1,234.56
en-GB English (United Kingdom) 1,234.56 26/9/2026 £1,234.56
en-CA English (Canada) 1,234.56 2026-09-26 $1,234.56
en-AU English (Australia) 1,234.56 26/9/2026 $1,234.56
de-DE German (Germany) 1.234,56 26.9.2026 1.234,56 €
de-CH German (Switzerland) 1’234.56 26.9.2026 CHF 1’234.56
fr-FR French (France) 1 234,56 26/9/2026 1 234,56 €
fr-CA French (Canada) 1 234,56 2026-09-26 1 234,56 $
es-ES Spanish (Spain) 1.234,56 26/9/2026 1.234,56 €
es-MX Spanish (Mexico) 1,234.56 26/9/2026 $1,234.56
it-IT Italian (Italy) 1.234,56 26/9/2026 1.234,56 €
pt-BR Portuguese (Brazil) 1.234,56 26/9/2026 R$ 1.234,56
pt-PT Portuguese (Portugal) 1 234,56 26/9/2026 1 234,56 €
nl-NL Dutch (Netherlands) 1.234,56 26-9-2026 € 1.234,56
sv-SE Swedish (Sweden) 1 234,56 2026-09-26 1 234,56 kr
da-DK Danish (Denmark) 1.234,56 26.9.2026 1.234,56 kr.
nb-NO Norwegian (Norway) 1 234,56 26.9.2026 kr 1 234,56
fi-FI Finnish (Finland) 1 234,56 26.9.2026 1 234,56 €
pl-PL Polish (Poland) 1 234,56 26.9.2026 1 234,56 zł
cs-CZ Czech (Czechia) 1 234,56 26.9.2026 1 234,56 Kč
ru-RU Russian (Russia) 1 234,56 26.9.2026 1 234,56 ₽
tr-TR Turkish (Türkiye) 1.234,56 26.9.2026 ₺1.234,56
ja-JP Japanese (Japan) 1,234.56 2026/9/26 ¥1,234.56
zh-CN Chinese (China) 1,234.56 2026/9/26 ¥1,234.56

Dates show day and month without leading zeros, as en-US's do, so most fit a default column; ISO dates keep theirs. Spaces in numbers are no-break spaces, so a number never breaks across lines; when typing one, an ordinary space does.

What follows the locale

  • Typing. Numbers, percentages, currency and dates are read the locale's way: 1.234,5, 12,5 %, 12,50 € and 26.09.2026 in German. A date of numbers follows the locale's order (day first in most of Europe, year first in Japan and Sweden); 2026-09-26, month names in English (26 Sep 2026) and times (14:30) read the same everywhere. What isn't a value in the locale stays text: $5 is text in German, 9/26/2026 in British English.
  • Showing. Automatic and every number format use the locale's decimal and thousands separators. Currency, Date, Time and Date time (Format > Number) show the locale's symbol and order; a custom format keeps its own symbols and order, only its separators follow the locale, as in Sheets.
  • Month and day names. mmm, mmmm, ddd and dddd in a format show the locale's language (Sa 26. September in German), in the form a date with its day takes where the language has one (Polish 26 września 2026, but wrzesień 2026); AM/PM shows 午前 and 午後 in Japanese and 上午 and 下午 in Chinese. A format tagged with a locale as Excel writes them ([$-407]mmmm) shows that locale's names. Dates typed with the locale's month names (26. Okt. 2026) are read as dates too.
  • Formulas. Where the decimal separator is a comma, arguments are separated by ; and the values of an array's row by \: =IF(A1>1,5; "yes"; "no"), ={1\2;3\4}. Function names stay in English, as in Sheets. The formula bar, editing a cell and the function hints (ROUND(value; [places])) all use the locale's form, as do formulas in conditional formatting, data validation and filter conditions. A formula that doesn't parse says so in the locale's syntax: Expected ; or ) in ROUND.
  • Filters and text conditions. A filter's list of values shows them as the sheet does (1.234,50), and conditions on text (contains, starts with, is exactly) test the text the locale shows, in filters and conditional formats alike, so their values are kept as typed.
  • The clipboard and CSV files. Copying writes numbers with the locale's decimal separator and pasting reads text the locale's way. CSV files are read and written in the locale too.
  • The status line. Sum and Avg of the selection.

What doesn't

The file stores everything the same way in every locale, so a sheet opens with the same values wherever it's opened: entries as typed in en-US (1,234.5, 09/26/2026, =ROUND(A1*1.19, 2); see the file format). Switching the locale redraws the sheet and changes no value. Functions compute the same everywhere too: VALUE("1,5") and TEXT(A1, "0.00") read and write en-US's form in any locale, and macros and their API set and read entries in en-US's form.

Excel files are downloaded with the locale's Currency, Date, Time and Date time formats, tagged with it as Excel writes them (#,##0.00\ [$€-407], [$-407]d.m.yyyy), so Excel shows them as the sheet does. Opened in a sheet of the same locale they are those formats again; in another they keep their symbol and order as custom formats.