How does setlocale() function work in PHP and what is its dependency on the user's operating system?

The setlocale() function in PHP is used to set the locale information (such as language, region, and encoding) for string formatting functions like strftime(). The function's behavior and available locales depend on the user's operating system. To ensure cross-platform compatibility, it's important to check for the availability of specific locales before using setlocale(). 

// Check if the desired locale is available before setting it
if (in_array('en_US.utf8', Locale::getPrimaryLanguage('en_US'))) {
    setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.utf8');
} else {
    // Fallback to a default locale if the desired one is not available
    setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US');
}

// Use setlocale() with the desired locale for string formatting functions
echo strftime('%A, %B %d, %Y');

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