System.Globalization Namespace
.NET Framework 4.5
The System.Globalization namespace contains classes that define culture-related information, including language, country/region, calendars in use, format patterns for dates, currency, and numbers, and sort order for strings. These classes are useful for writing globalized (internationalized) applications. Classes such as StringInfo and TextInfo provide advanced globalization functionalities, including surrogate support and text element processing.
The following MSDN blogs include discussions of the System.Globalization namespace and its classes:
| Class | Description | |
|---|---|---|
   | Calendar | Represents time in divisions, such as weeks, months, and years. |
| CharUnicodeInfo | Retrieves information about a Unicode character. This class cannot be inherited. |
| ChineseLunisolarCalendar | Represents time in divisions, such as months, days, and years. Years are calculated using the Chinese calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar. |
| CompareInfo | Implements a set of methods for culture-sensitive string comparisons. |
| CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder | Defines a custom culture that is new or based on another culture and country/region. The custom culture can be installed on a computer and subsequently used by any application that is running on that computer. This class cannot be inherited. |
| CultureInfo | Provides information about a specific culture (called a locale for unmanaged code development). The information includes the names for the culture, the writing system, the calendar used, and formatting for dates and sort strings. |
| CultureNotFoundException | The exception thrown when a method is invoked which attempts to construct a culture that is not available on the machine. |
| DateTimeFormatInfo | Provides culture-specific information about the format of date and time values. |
| DaylightTime | Defines the period of daylight saving time. |
| EastAsianLunisolarCalendar | Represents a calendar that divides time into months, days, years, and eras, and has dates that are based on cycles of the sun and the moon. |
| GregorianCalendar | Represents the Gregorian calendar. |
| HebrewCalendar | Represents the Hebrew calendar. |
| HijriCalendar | Represents the Hijri calendar. |
| IdnMapping | Supports the use of non-ASCII characters for Internet domain names. This class cannot be inherited. |
| JapaneseCalendar | Represents the Japanese calendar. |
| JapaneseLunisolarCalendar | Represents time in divisions, such as months, days, and years. Years are calculated as for the Japanese calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar. |
| JulianCalendar | Represents the Julian calendar. |
| KoreanCalendar | Represents the Korean calendar. |
| KoreanLunisolarCalendar | Represents time in divisions, such as months, days, and years. Years are calculated using the Gregorian calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar. |
| NumberFormatInfo | Provides culture-specific information for formatting and parsing numeric values. |
| PersianCalendar | Represents the Persian calendar. |
| RegionInfo | Contains information about the country/region. |
| SortKey | Represents the result of mapping a string to its sort key. |
| SortVersion | Provides information about the version of Unicode used to compare and order strings. |
| StringInfo | Provides functionality to split a string into text elements and to iterate through those text elements. |
| TaiwanCalendar | the Taiwan calendar. |
| TaiwanLunisolarCalendar | Represents the Taiwan lunisolar calendar. As for the Taiwan calendar, years are calculated using the Gregorian calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar. |
| TextElementEnumerator | Enumerates the text elements of a string. |
| TextInfo | Defines text properties and behaviors, such as casing, that are specific to a writing system. |
| ThaiBuddhistCalendar | Represents the Thai Buddhist calendar. |
| UmAlQuraCalendar | Represents the Saudi Hijri (Um Al Qura) calendar. |
| Enumeration | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| CalendarAlgorithmType | Specifies whether a calendar is solar-based, lunar-based, or lunisolar-based. |
| CalendarWeekRule | Defines different rules for determining the first week of the year. |
| CompareOptions | Defines the string comparison options to use with CompareInfo. |
| CultureAndRegionModifiers | Specifies constants that define a CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder object. |
| CultureTypes | Defines the types of culture lists that can be retrieved using the CultureInfo.GetCultures method. |
| DateTimeStyles | Defines the formatting options that customize string parsing for some date and time parsing methods. |
| DigitShapes | Specifies the culture-specific display of digits. |
| GregorianCalendarTypes | Defines the different language versions of the Gregorian calendar. |
| NumberStyles | Determines the styles permitted in numeric string arguments that are passed to the Parse and TryParse methods of the integral and floating-point numeric types. |
| TimeSpanStyles | Defines the formatting options that customize string parsing for the TimeSpan.ParseExact and TimeSpan.TryParseExact methods. |
| UnicodeCategory | Defines the Unicode category of a character. |
