Fun with Python and locale! Works on Python 2.7.x.

python.locale.py

import locale
import logging
import os


logger = logging.getLogger(os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(__file__))[0])


def set_locale(desired_locale=('en_US', 'UTF-8')):
    """Set the local for proper formatting.

    .. note::
        * `locale.setlocale() <https://docs.python.org/2/library/locale.html#locale.setlocale>`_

    :param desired_locale: (optional) Tuple of the locale language and character-set. The default will be
                           "en_US.UTF-8". (default: ('en_US', 'UTF-8'))
    :type desired_locale: tuple
    :return: True if the setting was successful otherwise return False.
    :rtype: bool
    """
    logging.getLogger('set_locale')

    current_locale = locale.getlocale()

    if set(current_locale) == set(desired_locale):
        logger.info('Desired locale ("LC_ALL") is already "{}", nothing to do.'.format('.'.join(desired_locale)))
        return True

    try:
        logger.info('Setting locale ("LC_ALL") to "{}".'.format('.'.join(desired_locale)))
        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, desired_locale)
        return True
    except locale.Error as err:
        logger.exception(err)
        return False


def set_console_encoding(encoding='utf-8'):
    """Set console encoding.

    :param encoding: (optional) Encoding.
                     (default: 'utf-8')
    :type encoding: str, unicode, basestring
    :return: True if successful and False if not.
    :rtype: bool
    """
    try:
        if globals().get('sys') is None:
            import sys

        # First, reload the sys module.
        #   For Python 3.0 - 3.3: use imp
        #   For Python >=3.4: use importlib
        if sys.version_info.major == 2:
            reload(sys)
        elif sys.version_info.major == 3:
            if 0 <= sys.version_info.minor <= 3:
                if globals().get('imp') is None:
                    import imp
                imp.reload(sys)
            elif sys.version_info.minor >= 4:
                if globals().get('importlib') is None:
                    import importlib
                importlib.reload(sys)

        sys.setdefaultencoding(encoding)
        logger.info('Set console encoding to "{}".'.format(encoding))
        return True
    except Exception as err:
        logger.exception(err)
        return False
 

def convert_number_to_human_readable_string(data, fmt=None, grouping=True, **kwargs):
    """Convert number to human-readable string based on locale. Additional kwargs passed to locale.format().

    :param data: Some kind of number.
    :type data: int, float, long
    :param fmt: (optional) Number format. (default: None)
    :param grouping: (optional) Take grouping into account. (default: True)
    :type grouping: bool
    :return: Human-readable string.
    :rtype: basestring, str, unicode
    """
    if fmt is not None:
        return locale.format(fmt, data, grouping=grouping, **kwargs)

    if isinstance(data, (int, long)):
        return locale.format('%d', data, grouping=grouping, **kwargs)

    if isinstance(data, float):
        return locale.format('%f', data, grouping=grouping, **kwargs)

    return data