localeconv package:base R Documentation _F_i_n_d _D_e_t_a_i_l_s _o_f _t_h_e _N_u_m_e_r_i_c_a_l _a_n_d _M_o_n_e_t_a_r_y _R_e_p_r_e_s_e_n_t_a_t_i_o_n_s _i_n _t_h_e _C_u_r_r_e_n_t _L_o_c_a_l_e _D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n: Get details of the numerical and monetary representations in the current locale. _U_s_a_g_e: Sys.localeconv() _D_e_t_a_i_l_s: These settings are usually controlled by the environment variables 'LC_NUMERIC' and 'LC_MONETARY' and if not set the values of 'LC_ALL' or 'LANG'. Normally R is run without looking at the value of 'LC_NUMERIC', so the decimal point remains ''.''. So the first three of these values will not be useful unless you have set 'LC_NUMERIC' in the current R session. _V_a_l_u_e: A character vector with 18 named components. See your ISO C documentation for details of the meaning. It is possible to compile R without support for locales, in which case the value will be 'NULL'. _S_e_e _A_l_s_o: 'Sys.setlocale' for ways to set locales. _E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s: Sys.localeconv() ## The results in the C locale are ## decimal_point thousands_sep grouping int_curr_symbol ## "." "" "" "" ## currency_symbol mon_decimal_point mon_thousands_sep mon_grouping ## "" "" "" "" ## positive_sign negative_sign int_frac_digits frac_digits ## "" "" "127" "127" ## p_cs_precedes p_sep_by_space n_cs_precedes n_sep_by_space ## "127" "127" "127" "127" ## p_sign_posn n_sign_posn ## "127" "127" ## Now try your default locale (which might be "C"). ## Not run: old <- Sys.getlocale() Sys.setlocale(locale = "") Sys.localeconv() Sys.setlocale(locale = old) ## End(Not run) ## Not run: read.table("foo", dec=Sys.localeconv()["decimal_point"])