Locale Language Confusion

[LLD]

This is really annoying… refer screen shot above… in Google Sheets, India locale does not have an English language option. One can only select Hindi (option 1, “Hindi” not mentioned, left blank) or one of the other 8 local languages.

Even if we do choose one of the 9 India locale options, back in AppSheet, we cannot choose the English (India) locale option… AppSheet auto changes the data locale to “Hindi (India)”.

Why?

[Koichi_Tsuji · Accepted solution]

Out of my curiosity, what is the difference between, American, British and Indian English?

[LLD · Accepted solution]

Its not so much for the language as it is for the Date formats, Currency formats etc. I assume that by correctly matching locales on Google Sheets and AppSheet, I’m avoiding date display confusion, as well as numerical value display (India - Lacs & Crores, rest of the world - Millions).

What would you recommend as locale settings in Google Sheets and AppSheet?

[Koichi_Tsuji · Accepted solution]

Locale is not easy thing to fix.
How about your browser default language settings?

[LLD · Accepted solution]

Nah! I’ve wasted a lot of time on this before… I was hoping someone in the community had a quick fix… but thank you for taking the interest

to elucidate… my team here in Chennai (South India) need to see dates in DD/MM/YYYY formats, and numerical values in ## ## ## ###. 00 (i.e. Lacs & Crores) rather than ### ### ###.00 (Millions)… I have a handful of customers in the US/ UK who also need to see the same formats, so there isnt any confusion when they correspond with us.

[Koichi_Tsuji · Accepted solution]

Our date format here in my country is YYYY/MM/DD…
I could not offer the perfect solutions to make sure all the app users to see the same format as you assume.

[kavinkumar_nkl · Accepted solution]

Thank you @LLD for posting the Question.

Today, I really got frustrated for the same problem and found your post.

My Problem is, need to have Indian Time Zone so that calender works properly for me. Next is need to have English language for the month name. But as soon as I locale to India, the language becomes Hindi.

  

There are no option to have English.

I feel it is really a serious issue.

[Phil · Accepted solution]

There are three important places where you specify Locale.
1. The Google Sheets Locale
2. The AppSheet Table Locale
3. The mobile device or browser locale

This article primarily explains the first two  https://help.appsheet.com/en/articles/961395-locale-support-in-appsheet.
These two setting control how your data is stored and formatted in the Google Sheet. The AppSheet Table Locale must match the Google Sheet Locale because it ensure that Google Sheets and AppSheet reads and writes the Google Sheet data in the correct locale.

The article also mentions the mobile device or browser locale. The mobile device or browser locale completely controls how you data is displayed to the application users. The article contains the following four points regarding the mobile device or browser locale.
4. Make certain that your browser or device is set to use your locale. For example, in the United Kingdom, select the UK locale. In Thailand, select the Thai locale. The browser or device setting completely determines how data values are displayed within the app running on your browser or device.
5. If you use a calendar other than the Gregorian calendar, make certain that your browser or device is set to use that calendar. For example, in Thailand, select the Buddhist calendar. Many countries use the Gregorian calendar, so in many cases you can skip this step.
6. Click the Sync button in the app to read the latest values from the Google Sheet. See if the Date, DateTime, Decimal, Percent, Price, and Time values are displayed correctly in the app. If not, verify your browser or device locale settings.
7. Try updating a Date, DateTime, Decimal, Percent, Price, or Time value and saving the changes to the server. See if the correct values appear in the Google Sheet and the app.

The article also explains that:
All data is sent between the app and the AppSheet server in a common universal format. This makes it easier for the app and server to communicate. It has no effect on how data is stored in the worksheet or displayed in the client. 

We refer to this "common universal format" as "wire format" internally, because it is the format used to transmit data between the client and server over the network. "wire format". The client and server are both capable of converting between localized and wire format. The wire format and the conversions we do internally are all transparent to your application.

Our Locales are based on the Windows Locales. Each Window Locale specifies how dates, times, date/times, currency, decimal, percent, and other values are stored and displayed. We do not support an "en-IN" (English_India) locale because Windows does not support it. 

If I understand you question correctly, I think your are asking about choosing the Google Sheets locale. The AppSheet Table Locale always matches the Google Sheets Locale. You should choose the Google Sheets locale that most closely matches how you want to manually enter and view data in your Google Sheet. If you are simply using Google Sheets as a place to store your AppSheet data and you seldom., if ever, enter or view data directly in the Google Sheet browser interface, you could choose any Locale. 

The Google Sheets Locale need not match the the mobile device or browser locale specified by your application users. Different users could even specify different locales. The Locale only affects how the data is displayed on the user's device or browser. The data is sent between the client and server in "common universal format" that is "wire format" The Server reads and writes data to the Google Sheet in the Google Sheets Locale format.

[ravikirancg123 · Accepted solution]

Hi Phil. This part of your response seems incorrect. 

---

@Phil wrote:

Our Locales are based on the Windows Locales. Each Window Locale specifies how dates, times, date/times, currency, decimal, percent, and other values are stored and displayed. We do not support an "en-IN" (English_India) locale because Windows does not support it. 

Windows does support en-IN locale. Please refer to this language code 16393

Also, I don't think you are understanding the original question correctly. Let me put it this way:

There are two parts.

1. Language

2. Locale

I want the language to be English and the locale to be India.

Right now, if I select my locale to "India", it changes the language to Hindi. This is absurd.

There are other locales where there are languages along with locale ex: "India(Kannada)". This changes the locale to India and the language to Kannada correctly. 

Coming to your suggestion of choosing the locale that most closely matches my locale, I would choose "India". But there is no way to change language to English.

To keep things short, we need an additional locale called "India(Hindi)" that does what the current option does. And the existing locale called "India" should not change the language.

[ravikirancg123 · Accepted solution]

This is indeed a very serious issue. Especially as a Google workspace user.

[Koichi_Tsuji · Accepted solution]

Out of my curiosity, what is the difference between, American, British and Indian English?

[LLD · Accepted solution]

Its not so much for the language as it is for the Date formats, Currency formats etc. I assume that by correctly matching locales on Google Sheets and AppSheet, I’m avoiding date display confusion, as well as numerical value display (India - Lacs & Crores, rest of the world - Millions).

What would you recommend as locale settings in Google Sheets and AppSheet?

[Koichi_Tsuji · Accepted solution]

Locale is not easy thing to fix.
How about your browser default language settings?

[LLD · Accepted solution]

Nah! I’ve wasted a lot of time on this before… I was hoping someone in the community had a quick fix… but thank you for taking the interest

to elucidate… my team here in Chennai (South India) need to see dates in DD/MM/YYYY formats, and numerical values in ## ## ## ###. 00 (i.e. Lacs & Crores) rather than ### ### ###.00 (Millions)… I have a handful of customers in the US/ UK who also need to see the same formats, so there isnt any confusion when they correspond with us.

[Koichi_Tsuji · Accepted solution]

Our date format here in my country is YYYY/MM/DD…
I could not offer the perfect solutions to make sure all the app users to see the same format as you assume.

[kavinkumar_nkl · Accepted solution]

Thank you @LLD for posting the Question.

Today, I really got frustrated for the same problem and found your post.

My Problem is, need to have Indian Time Zone so that calender works properly for me. Next is need to have English language for the month name. But as soon as I locale to India, the language becomes Hindi.

  

There are no option to have English.

I feel it is really a serious issue.

[ravikirancg123 · Accepted solution]

This is indeed a very serious issue. Especially as a Google workspace user.

[Phil · Accepted solution]

There are three important places where you specify Locale.
1. The Google Sheets Locale
2. The AppSheet Table Locale
3. The mobile device or browser locale

This article primarily explains the first two  https://help.appsheet.com/en/articles/961395-locale-support-in-appsheet.
These two setting control how your data is stored and formatted in the Google Sheet. The AppSheet Table Locale must match the Google Sheet Locale because it ensure that Google Sheets and AppSheet reads and writes the Google Sheet data in the correct locale.

The article also mentions the mobile device or browser locale. The mobile device or browser locale completely controls how you data is displayed to the application users. The article contains the following four points regarding the mobile device or browser locale.
4. Make certain that your browser or device is set to use your locale. For example, in the United Kingdom, select the UK locale. In Thailand, select the Thai locale. The browser or device setting completely determines how data values are displayed within the app running on your browser or device.
5. If you use a calendar other than the Gregorian calendar, make certain that your browser or device is set to use that calendar. For example, in Thailand, select the Buddhist calendar. Many countries use the Gregorian calendar, so in many cases you can skip this step.
6. Click the Sync button in the app to read the latest values from the Google Sheet. See if the Date, DateTime, Decimal, Percent, Price, and Time values are displayed correctly in the app. If not, verify your browser or device locale settings.
7. Try updating a Date, DateTime, Decimal, Percent, Price, or Time value and saving the changes to the server. See if the correct values appear in the Google Sheet and the app.

The article also explains that:
All data is sent between the app and the AppSheet server in a common universal format. This makes it easier for the app and server to communicate. It has no effect on how data is stored in the worksheet or displayed in the client. 

We refer to this "common universal format" as "wire format" internally, because it is the format used to transmit data between the client and server over the network. "wire format". The client and server are both capable of converting between localized and wire format. The wire format and the conversions we do internally are all transparent to your application.

Our Locales are based on the Windows Locales. Each Window Locale specifies how dates, times, date/times, currency, decimal, percent, and other values are stored and displayed. We do not support an "en-IN" (English_India) locale because Windows does not support it. 

If I understand you question correctly, I think your are asking about choosing the Google Sheets locale. The AppSheet Table Locale always matches the Google Sheets Locale. You should choose the Google Sheets locale that most closely matches how you want to manually enter and view data in your Google Sheet. If you are simply using Google Sheets as a place to store your AppSheet data and you seldom., if ever, enter or view data directly in the Google Sheet browser interface, you could choose any Locale. 

The Google Sheets Locale need not match the the mobile device or browser locale specified by your application users. Different users could even specify different locales. The Locale only affects how the data is displayed on the user's device or browser. The data is sent between the client and server in "common universal format" that is "wire format" The Server reads and writes data to the Google Sheet in the Google Sheets Locale format.

[ravikirancg123 · Accepted solution]

Hi Phil. This part of your response seems incorrect. 

---

@Phil wrote:

Our Locales are based on the Windows Locales. Each Window Locale specifies how dates, times, date/times, currency, decimal, percent, and other values are stored and displayed. We do not support an "en-IN" (English_India) locale because Windows does not support it. 

Windows does support en-IN locale. Please refer to this language code 16393

Also, I don't think you are understanding the original question correctly. Let me put it this way:

There are two parts.

1. Language

2. Locale

I want the language to be English and the locale to be India.

Right now, if I select my locale to "India", it changes the language to Hindi. This is absurd.

There are other locales where there are languages along with locale ex: "India(Kannada)". This changes the locale to India and the language to Kannada correctly. 

Coming to your suggestion of choosing the locale that most closely matches my locale, I would choose "India". But there is no way to change language to English.

To keep things short, we need an additional locale called "India(Hindi)" that does what the current option does. And the existing locale called "India" should not change the language.

[Steve · Accepted solution]

Please contact AppSheet Support for help with this.

[dntrplytch]

I am not sure why this question is marked Solved in so many replies.
The issue still very much exists as elucidated by @ravikirancg123 
It is ridiculous that changing Locale to India will not allow Date formulas to display in English. How is this even possible?