CultureInfo Class
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
The CultureInfo class holds culture-specific information, such as the associated language, sublanguage, country/region, calendar, and cultural conventions. This class also provides access to culture-specific instances of DateTimeFormatInfo, NumberFormatInfo, CompareInfo, and TextInfo. These objects contain the information required for culture-specific operations, such as casing, formatting dates and numbers, and comparing strings.
The String class indirectly uses this class to obtain information about the default culture.
Culture Names and Identifiers
The culture names follow the RFC 1766 standard in the format "<languagecode2>-<country/regioncode2>", where <languagecode2> is a lowercase two-letter code derived from ISO 639-1 and <country/regioncode2> is an uppercase two-letter code derived from ISO 3166. For example, U.S. English is "en-US". In cases where a two-letter language code is not available, the three-letter code derived from ISO 639-2 is used; for example, the three-letter code "div" is used for cultures that use the Dhivehi language. Some culture names have suffixes that specify the script; for example, "-Cyrl" specifies the Cyrillic script, "-Latn" specifies the Latin script.
The following predefined culture names and identifiers are accepted and used by this and other classes in the System.Globalization namespace.
| Culture Name | Culture Identifier | Language-Country/Region |
|---|---|---|
| "" (empty string) | 0x007F | invariant culture |
| af | 0x0036 | Afrikaans |
| af-ZA | 0x0436 | Afrikaans - South Africa |
| sq | 0x001C | Albanian |
| sq-AL | 0x041C | Albanian - Albania |
| ar | 0x0001 | Arabic |
| ar-DZ | 0x1401 | Arabic - Algeria |
| ar-BH | 0x3C01 | Arabic - Bahrain |
| ar-EG | 0x0C01 | Arabic - Egypt |
| ar-IQ | 0x0801 | Arabic - Iraq |
| ar-JO | 0x2C01 | Arabic - Jordan |
| ar-KW | 0x3401 | Arabic - Kuwait |
| ar-LB | 0x3001 | Arabic - Lebanon |
| ar-LY | 0x1001 | Arabic - Libya |
| ar-MA | 0x1801 | Arabic - Morocco |
| ar-OM | 0x2001 | Arabic - Oman |
| ar-QA | 0x4001 | Arabic - Qatar |
| ar-SA | 0x0401 | Arabic - Saudi Arabia |
| ar-SY | 0x2801 | Arabic - Syria |
| ar-TN | 0x1C01 | Arabic - Tunisia |
| ar-AE | 0x3801 | Arabic - United Arab Emirates |
| ar-YE | 0x2401 | Arabic - Yemen |
| hy | 0x002B | Armenian |
| hy-AM | 0x042B | Armenian - Armenia |
| az | 0x002C | Azeri |
| az-AZ-Cyrl | 0x082C | Azeri (Cyrillic) - Azerbaijan |
| az-AZ-Latn | 0x042C | Azeri (Latin) - Azerbaijan |
| eu | 0x002D | Basque |
| eu-ES | 0x042D | Basque - Basque |
| be | 0x0023 | Belarusian |
| be-BY | 0x0423 | Belarusian - Belarus |
| bg | 0x0002 | Bulgarian |
| bg-BG | 0x0402 | Bulgarian - Bulgaria |
| ca | 0x0003 | Catalan |
| ca-ES | 0x0403 | Catalan - Catalan |
| zh-HK | 0x0C04 | Chinese - Hong Kong SAR |
| zh-MO | 0x1404 | Chinese - Macao SAR |
| zh-CN | 0x0804 | Chinese - China |
| zh-CHS | 0x0004 | Chinese (Simplified) |
| zh-SG | 0x1004 | Chinese - Singapore |
| zh-TW | 0x0404 | Chinese - Taiwan |
| zh-CHT | 0x7C04 | Chinese (Traditional) |
| hr | 0x001A | Croatian |
| hr-HR | 0x041A | Croatian - Croatia |
| cs | 0x0005 | Czech |
| cs-CZ | 0x0405 | Czech - Czech Republic |
| da | 0x0006 | Danish |
| da-DK | 0x0406 | Danish - Denmark |
| div | 0x0065 | Dhivehi |
| div-MV | 0x0465 | Dhivehi - Maldives |
| nl | 0x0013 | Dutch |
| nl-BE | 0x0813 | Dutch - Belgium |
| nl-NL | 0x0413 | Dutch - The Netherlands |
| en | 0x0009 | English |
| en-AU | 0x0C09 | English - Australia |
| en-BZ | 0x2809 | English - Belize |
| en-CA | 0x1009 | English - Canada |
| en-CB | 0x2409 | English - Caribbean |
| en-IE | 0x1809 | English - Ireland |
| en-JM | 0x2009 | English - Jamaica |
| en-NZ | 0x1409 | English - New Zealand |
| en-PH | 0x3409 | English - Philippines |
| en-ZA | 0x1C09 | English - South Africa |
| en-TT | 0x2C09 | English - Trinidad and Tobago |
| en-GB | 0x0809 | English - United Kingdom |
| en-US | 0x0409 | English - United States |
| en-ZW | 0x3009 | English - Zimbabwe |
| et | 0x0025 | Estonian |
| et-EE | 0x0425 | Estonian - Estonia |
| fo | 0x0038 | Faroese |
| fo-FO | 0x0438 | Faroese - Faroe Islands |
| fa | 0x0029 | Farsi |
| fa-IR | 0x0429 | Farsi - Iran |
| fi | 0x000B | Finnish |
| fi-FI | 0x040B | Finnish - Finland |
| fr | 0x000C | French |
| fr-BE | 0x080C | French - Belgium |
| fr-CA | 0x0C0C | French - Canada |
| fr-FR | 0x040C | French - France |
| fr-LU | 0x140C | French - Luxembourg |
| fr-MC | 0x180C | French - Monaco |
| fr-CH | 0x100C | French - Switzerland |
| gl | 0x0056 | Galician |
| gl-ES | 0x0456 | Galician - Galician |
| ka | 0x0037 | Georgian |
| ka-GE | 0x0437 | Georgian - Georgia |
| de | 0x0007 | German |
| de-AT | 0x0C07 | German - Austria |
| de-DE | 0x0407 | German - Germany |
| de-LI | 0x1407 | German - Liechtenstein |
| de-LU | 0x1007 | German - Luxembourg |
| de-CH | 0x0807 | German - Switzerland |
| el | 0x0008 | Greek |
| el-GR | 0x0408 | Greek - Greece |
| gu | 0x0047 | Gujarati |
| gu-IN | 0x0447 | Gujarati - India |
| he | 0x000D | Hebrew |
| he-IL | 0x040D | Hebrew - Israel |
| hi | 0x0039 | Hindi |
| hi-IN | 0x0439 | Hindi - India |
| hu | 0x000E | Hungarian |
| hu-HU | 0x040E | Hungarian - Hungary |
| is | 0x000F | Icelandic |
| is-IS | 0x040F | Icelandic - Iceland |
| id | 0x0021 | Indonesian |
| id-ID | 0x0421 | Indonesian - Indonesia |
| it | 0x0010 | Italian |
| it-IT | 0x0410 | Italian - Italy |
| it-CH | 0x0810 | Italian - Switzerland |
| ja | 0x0011 | Japanese |
| ja-JP | 0x0411 | Japanese - Japan |
| kn | 0x004B | Kannada |
| kn-IN | 0x044B | Kannada - India |
| kk | 0x003F | Kazakh |
| kk-KZ | 0x043F | Kazakh - Kazakhstan |
| kok | 0x0057 | Konkani |
| kok-IN | 0x0457 | Konkani - India |
| ko | 0x0012 | Korean |
| ko-KR | 0x0412 | Korean - Korea |
| ky | 0x0040 | Kyrgyz |
| ky-KG | 0x0440 | Kyrgyz - Kyrgyzstan |
| lv | 0x0026 | Latvian |
| lv-LV | 0x0426 | Latvian - Latvia |
| lt | 0x0027 | Lithuanian |
| lt-LT | 0x0427 | Lithuanian - Lithuania |
| mk | 0x002F | Macedonian |
| mk-MK | 0x042F | Macedonian - Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia |
| ms | 0x003E | Malay |
| ms-BN | 0x083E | Malay - Brunei |
| ms-MY | 0x043E | Malay - Malaysia |
| mr | 0x004E | Marathi |
| mr-IN | 0x044E | Marathi - India |
| mn | 0x0050 | Mongolian |
| mn-MN | 0x0450 | Mongolian - Mongolia |
| no | 0x0014 | Norwegian |
| nb-NO | 0x0414 | Norwegian (Bokmål) - Norway |
| nn-NO | 0x0814 | Norwegian (Nynorsk) - Norway |
| pl | 0x0015 | Polish |
| pl-PL | 0x0415 | Polish - Poland |
| pt | 0x0016 | Portuguese |
| pt-BR | 0x0416 | Portuguese - Brazil |
| pt-PT | 0x0816 | Portuguese - Portugal |
| pa | 0x0046 | Punjabi |
| pa-IN | 0x0446 | Punjabi - India |
| ro | 0x0018 | Romanian |
| ro-RO | 0x0418 | Romanian - Romania |
| ru | 0x0019 | Russian |
| ru-RU | 0x0419 | Russian - Russia |
| sa | 0x004F | Sanskrit |
| sa-IN | 0x044F | Sanskrit - India |
| sr-SP-Cyrl | 0x0C1A | Serbian (Cyrillic) - Serbia |
| sr-SP-Latn | 0x081A | Serbian (Latin) - Serbia |
| sk | 0x001B | Slovak |
| sk-SK | 0x041B | Slovak - Slovakia |
| sl | 0x0024 | Slovenian |
| sl-SI | 0x0424 | Slovenian - Slovenia |
| es | 0x000A | Spanish |
| es-AR | 0x2C0A | Spanish - Argentina |
| es-BO | 0x400A | Spanish - Bolivia |
| es-CL | 0x340A | Spanish - Chile |
| es-CO | 0x240A | Spanish - Colombia |
| es-CR | 0x140A | Spanish - Costa Rica |
| es-DO | 0x1C0A | Spanish - Dominican Republic |
| es-EC | 0x300A | Spanish - Ecuador |
| es-SV | 0x440A | Spanish - El Salvador |
| es-GT | 0x100A | Spanish - Guatemala |
| es-HN | 0x480A | Spanish - Honduras |
| es-MX | 0x080A | Spanish - Mexico |
| es-NI | 0x4C0A | Spanish - Nicaragua |
| es-PA | 0x180A | Spanish - Panama |
| es-PY | 0x3C0A | Spanish - Paraguay |
| es-PE | 0x280A | Spanish - Peru |
| es-PR | 0x500A | Spanish - Puerto Rico |
| es-ES | 0x0C0A | Spanish - Spain |
| es-UY | 0x380A | Spanish - Uruguay |
| es-VE | 0x200A | Spanish - Venezuela |
| sw | 0x0041 | Swahili |
| sw-KE | 0x0441 | Swahili - Kenya |
| sv | 0x001D | Swedish |
| sv-FI | 0x081D | Swedish - Finland |
| sv-SE | 0x041D | Swedish - Sweden |
| syr | 0x005A | Syriac |
| syr-SY | 0x045A | Syriac - Syria |
| ta | 0x0049 | Tamil |
| ta-IN | 0x0449 | Tamil - India |
| tt | 0x0044 | Tatar |
| tt-RU | 0x0444 | Tatar - Russia |
| te | 0x004A | Telugu |
| te-IN | 0x044A | Telugu - India |
| th | 0x001E | Thai |
| th-TH | 0x041E | Thai - Thailand |
| tr | 0x001F | Turkish |
| tr-TR | 0x041F | Turkish - Turkey |
| uk | 0x0022 | Ukrainian |
| uk-UA | 0x0422 | Ukrainian - Ukraine |
| ur | 0x0020 | Urdu |
| ur-PK | 0x0420 | Urdu - Pakistan |
| uz | 0x0043 | Uzbek |
| uz-UZ-Cyrl | 0x0843 | Uzbek (Cyrillic) - Uzbekistan |
| uz-UZ-Latn | 0x0443 | Uzbek (Latin) - Uzbekistan |
| vi | 0x002A | Vietnamese |
| vi-VN | 0x042A | Vietnamese - Vietnam |
Invariant, Neutral, and Specific Cultures
The cultures are generally grouped into three sets: the invariant culture, the neutral cultures, and the specific cultures.
The invariant culture is culture-insensitive. You can specify the invariant culture by name using an empty string ("") or by its culture identifier 0x007F. InvariantCulture retrieves an instance of the invariant culture. It is associated with the English language but not with any country/region. It can be used in almost any method in the Globalization namespace that requires a culture.
A neutral culture is a culture that is associated with a language but not with a country/region. A specific culture is a culture that is associated with a language and a country/region. For example, "fr" is a neutral culture and "fr-FR" is a specific culture. Note that "zh-CHS" (Simplified Chinese) and "zh-CHT" (Traditional Chinese) are neutral cultures.
Note that creating an instance of a CompareInfo class for a neutral culture is not recommended because the data it contains is arbitrary. To display and sort data, specify both the language and region. Additionally, the Name property of a CompareInfo object created for a neutral culture returns only the country and does not include the region.
The cultures have a hierarchy, such that the parent of a specific culture is a neutral culture and the parent of a neutral culture is the InvariantCulture. The Parent property returns the neutral culture associated with a specific culture.
If the resources for the specific culture are not available in the system, the resources for the neutral culture are used; if the resources for the neutral culture are not available, the resources embedded in the main assembly are used. For more information on the resource fallback process, see Packaging and Deploying Resources.
The list of cultures in the Windows API is slightly different from the list of cultures in the .NET Framework. For example, the neutral culture zh-CHT "Chinese (Traditional)" with culture identifier 0x7C04 is not available in the Windows API. If interoperability with Windows is required (for example, through the p/invoke mechanism), use a specific culture that is defined in the operating system. This will ensure consistency with the equivalent Windows locale, which is identified with the same LCID.
A DateTimeFormatInfo or a NumberFormatInfo can be created only for the invariant culture or for specific cultures, not for neutral cultures.
If DateTimeFormatInfo.Calendar is the TaiwanCalendar but the Thread.CurrentCulture is not "zh-TW", then DateTimeFormatInfo.NativeCalendarName, DateTimeFormatInfo.GetEraName, and DateTimeFormatInfo.GetAbbreviatedEraName return an empty string ("").
Windows Locales
Starting in the .NET Framework version 2.0, the CultureInfo constructor supports using Windows Locales, which are equivalent to cultures, to automatically generate cultures that do not exist in the .NET Framework. For more information, see Cultures Generated from Windows Locales.
Control Panel Overrides
The user might choose to override some of the values associated with the current culture of Windows through Regional and Language Options (or Regional Options or Regional Settings) in Control Panel. For example, the user might choose to display the date in a different format or to use a currency other than the default for the culture.
If UseUserOverride is true and the specified culture matches the current culture of Windows, the CultureInfo uses those overrides, including user settings for the properties of the DateTimeFormatInfo instance returned by the DateTimeFormat property, and the properties of the NumberFormatInfo instance returned by the NumberFormat property. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the OptionalCalendars), the results of the methods and the values of the properties are undefined.
For cultures that use the euro, the .NET Framework and Windows XP set the default currency as euro; however, older versions of Windows do not. Therefore, if the user of an older version of Windows has not changed the currency setting through Regional Options or Regional Settings in Control Panel, the currency might be incorrect. To use the .NET Framework default setting for the currency, use a CultureInfo constructor overload that accepts a useUserOverride parameter and set it to false.
Alternate Sort Orders
The culture identifier "0x0c0a" for "Spanish - Spain" uses the default international sort order; the culture identifier "0x040A", which is also for "Spanish - Spain", uses the traditional sort order. If the CultureInfo is constructed using the "es-ES" culture name, the new CultureInfo uses the default international sort order. To construct a CultureInfo that uses the traditional sort order, use the culture identifier "0x040A" with the constructor. For more information on other cultures that have alternate sorts, see Comparing and Sorting Data for a Specific Culture.
Implemented Interfaces
This class implements the ICloneable interface to enable duplication of CultureInfo objects. It also implements IFormatProvider to supply formatting information to applications.
Cultures, Threads, and Application Domains
There are unique considerations when using a thread associated with a CultureInfo object. For more information about cultures and application domains, see Application Domains and Threads.
The following code example shows how to create a CultureInfo for "Spanish - Spain" with the international sort and another CultureInfo with the traditional sort.
using System; using System.Collections; using System.Globalization; public class SamplesCultureInfo { public static void Main() { // Creates and initializes the CultureInfo which uses the international sort. CultureInfo myCIintl = new CultureInfo( "es-ES", false ); // Creates and initializes the CultureInfo which uses the traditional sort. CultureInfo myCItrad = new CultureInfo( 0x040A, false ); // Displays the properties of each culture. Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "PROPERTY", "INTERNATIONAL", "TRADITIONAL" ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "CompareInfo", myCIintl.CompareInfo, myCItrad.CompareInfo ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "DisplayName", myCIintl.DisplayName, myCItrad.DisplayName ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "EnglishName", myCIintl.EnglishName, myCItrad.EnglishName ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "IsNeutralCulture", myCIintl.IsNeutralCulture, myCItrad.IsNeutralCulture ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "IsReadOnly", myCIintl.IsReadOnly, myCItrad.IsReadOnly ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "LCID", myCIintl.LCID, myCItrad.LCID ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "Name", myCIintl.Name, myCItrad.Name ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "NativeName", myCIintl.NativeName, myCItrad.NativeName ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "Parent", myCIintl.Parent, myCItrad.Parent ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "TextInfo", myCIintl.TextInfo, myCItrad.TextInfo ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "ThreeLetterISOLanguageName", myCIintl.ThreeLetterISOLanguageName, myCItrad.ThreeLetterISOLanguageName ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName", myCIintl.ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName, myCItrad.ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName ); Console.WriteLine( "{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "TwoLetterISOLanguageName", myCIintl.TwoLetterISOLanguageName, myCItrad.TwoLetterISOLanguageName ); Console.WriteLine(); // Compare two strings using myCIintl. Console.WriteLine( "Comparing \"llegar\" and \"lugar\"" ); Console.WriteLine( " With myCIintl.CompareInfo.Compare: {0}", myCIintl.CompareInfo.Compare( "llegar", "lugar" ) ); Console.WriteLine( " With myCItrad.CompareInfo.Compare: {0}", myCItrad.CompareInfo.Compare( "llegar", "lugar" ) ); } } /* This code produces the following output. PROPERTY INTERNATIONAL TRADITIONAL CompareInfo CompareInfo - 3082 CompareInfo - 1034 DisplayName Spanish (Spain) Spanish (Spain) EnglishName Spanish (Spain) Spanish (Spain) IsNeutralCulture False False IsReadOnly False False LCID 3082 1034 Name es-ES es-ES NativeName español (España) español (España) Parent es es TextInfo TextInfo - 3082 TextInfo - 1034 ThreeLetterISOLanguageName spa spa ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName ESN ESN TwoLetterISOLanguageName es es Comparing "llegar" and "lugar" With myCIintl.CompareInfo.Compare: -1 With myCItrad.CompareInfo.Compare: 1 */
import System.* ;
import System.Collections.* ;
import System.Globalization.* ;
public class SamplesCultureInfo
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
// Creates and initializes the CultureInfo which uses the
// international sort.
CultureInfo myCIintl = new CultureInfo("es-ES", false);
// Creates and initializes the CultureInfo which uses the
// traditional sort.
CultureInfo myCItrad = new CultureInfo(0x40A, false);
// Displays the properties of each culture.
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "PROPERTY",
"INTERNATIONAL", "TRADITIONAL");
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "CompareInfo",
myCIintl.get_CompareInfo(), myCItrad.get_CompareInfo());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "DisplayName",
myCIintl.get_DisplayName(), myCItrad.get_DisplayName());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "EnglishName",
myCIintl.get_EnglishName(), myCItrad.get_EnglishName());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "IsNeutralCulture",
System.Convert.ToString(myCIintl.get_IsNeutralCulture()),
System.Convert.ToString(myCItrad.get_IsNeutralCulture()));
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "IsReadOnly",
System.Convert.ToString(myCIintl.get_IsReadOnly()),
System.Convert.ToString(myCItrad.get_IsReadOnly()));
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "LCID",
System.Convert.ToString(myCIintl.get_LCID()),
System.Convert.ToString(myCItrad.get_LCID()));
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "Name",
myCIintl.get_Name(), myCItrad.get_Name());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "NativeName",
myCIintl.get_NativeName(), myCItrad.get_NativeName());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "Parent",
myCIintl.get_Parent(), myCItrad.get_Parent());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "TextInfo",
myCIintl.get_TextInfo(), myCItrad.get_TextInfo());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}",
"ThreeLetterISOLanguageName",
myCIintl.get_ThreeLetterISOLanguageName(),
myCItrad.get_ThreeLetterISOLanguageName());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}",
"ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName",
myCIintl.get_ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName(),
myCItrad.get_ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName());
Console.WriteLine("{0,-33}{1,-25}{2,-25}", "TwoLetterISOLanguageName",
myCIintl.get_TwoLetterISOLanguageName(),
myCItrad.get_TwoLetterISOLanguageName());
Console.WriteLine();
// Compare two strings using myCIintl.
Console.WriteLine("Comparing \"llegar\" and \"lugar\"");
Console.WriteLine(" With myCIintl.CompareInfo.Compare: {0}",
System.Convert.ToString ( myCIintl.get_CompareInfo().Compare(
"llegar", "lugar")));
Console.WriteLine(" With myCItrad.CompareInfo.Compare: {0}",
System.Convert.ToString ( myCItrad.get_CompareInfo().Compare(
"llegar", "lugar")));
} //main
} //SamplesCultureInfo
/*
This code produces the following output.
PROPERTY INTERNATIONAL TRADITIONAL
CompareInfo CompareInfo - 3082 CompareInfo - 1034
DisplayName Spanish (Spain) Spanish (Spain)
EnglishName Spanish (Spain) Spanish (Spain)
IsNeutralCulture False False
IsReadOnly False False
LCID 3082 1034
Name es-ES es-ES
NativeName espaol (Espaa) espaol (Espaa)
Parent es es
TextInfo TextInfo - 3082 TextInfo - 1034
ThreeLetterISOLanguageName spa spa
ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName ESN ESN
TwoLetterISOLanguageName es es
Comparing "llegar" and "lugar"
With myCIintl.CompareInfo.Compare: -1
With myCItrad.CompareInfo.Compare: 1
*/
The following code example determines the parent culture of each specific culture using the Chinese language.
using System; using System.Globalization; public class SamplesCultureInfo { public static void Main() { // Prints the header. Console.WriteLine( "SPECIFIC CULTURE PARENT CULTURE" ); // Determines the specific cultures that use the Chinese language, and displays the parent culture. foreach ( CultureInfo ci in CultureInfo.GetCultures( CultureTypes.SpecificCultures ) ) { if ( ci.TwoLetterISOLanguageName == "zh" ) { Console.Write( "0x{0} {1} {2,-37}", ci.LCID.ToString("X4"), ci.Name, ci.EnglishName ); Console.WriteLine( "0x{0} {1} {2}", ci.Parent.LCID.ToString("X4"), ci.Parent.Name, ci.Parent.EnglishName ); } } } } /* This code produces the following output. SPECIFIC CULTURE PARENT CULTURE 0x0404 zh-TW Chinese (Taiwan) 0x7C04 zh-CHT Chinese (Traditional) 0x0804 zh-CN Chinese (People's Republic of China) 0x0004 zh-CHS Chinese (Simplified) 0x0C04 zh-HK Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.) 0x7C04 zh-CHT Chinese (Traditional) 0x1004 zh-SG Chinese (Singapore) 0x0004 zh-CHS Chinese (Simplified) 0x1404 zh-MO Chinese (Macau S.A.R.) 0x7C04 zh-CHT Chinese (Traditional) */
import System.* ;
import System.Globalization.* ;
public class SamplesCultureInfo
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
// Prints the header.
Console.WriteLine("SPECIFIC CULTURE "
+ " PARENT CULTURE");
// Determines the specific cultures that use the Chinese language,
// and displays the parent culture.
for(int iCtr=0;
iCtr < (CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures).
length); iCtr++) {
CultureInfo ci =
CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures)[iCtr];
if (ci.get_TwoLetterISOLanguageName().equalsIgnoreCase("zh")) {
Console.Write("0x{0} {1} {2,-37}",
((System.Int32 ) ci.get_LCID()).ToString("X4") ,
ci.get_Name(), ci.get_EnglishName());
Console.WriteLine("0x{0} {1} {2}",
((System.Int32 )ci.get_Parent().get_LCID()).ToString("X4"),
ci.get_Parent().get_Name(),
ci.get_Parent().get_EnglishName());
}
}
} //main
} //SamplesCultureInfo
/*
This code produces the following output.
SPECIFIC CULTURE PARENT CULTURE
0x0404 zh-TW Chinese (Taiwan) 0x7C04 zh-CHT Chinese
(Traditional)
0x0804 zh-CN Chinese (People's Republic of China) 0x0004 zh-CHS Chinese
(Simplified)
0x0C04 zh-HK Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.) 0x7C04 zh-CHT Chinese
(Traditional)
0x1004 zh-SG Chinese (Singapore) 0x0004 zh-CHS Chinese
(Simplified)
0x1404 zh-MO Chinese (Macau S.A.R.) 0x0004 zh-CHS Chinese
(Simplified)
*/
Windows 98, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows CE, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Starter Edition
The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see System Requirements.
Here is the best list of all of the available culture Names
- 10/16/2007
- Aaron Carlson
Remember that the above list of culture names is only a subset of cultures (locales) that could be found on any particular computer. Windows versions or service packs could change the number of available locales. Additionally users can add their own cultures (locales) using System.Globalization.CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder or the Microsoft Locale Builder tool http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=12adffc8-a4da-424b-8d62-17c1e0ffc116&DisplayLang=en.
Remember that custom cultures/locales may also have values that exceed the ranges of the Microsoft shipped locales. For example, some locales may have unusually long Month names, unexpected date or time formats or other data.
I blog about custom cultures and locale data in general at http://blogs.msdn.com/shawnste/archive/category/9761.aspx
Also remember to try to respect the customer's culture data values. They may want 24 hour clocks or yyyyMMdd date formats. Custom cultures can also override default values, so culture data should not be considered stable. Country names, date formats, spellings, etc. have all changed in the past and will probably change in the future. If you need to serialize using this data, like for the DateTime formatting and parsing functions, then use the Invariant culture or a specific format.
- 8/7/2006
- Shawn Steele [MSFT]
Note that a QFE to Microsoft.Net v2.0 included in Windows Vista changes the cultures zh-CHT/zh-CHS to zh-Hant/zh-Hans in order to conform with name standard. The parents of zh-Hant/Hans are zh-CHT/CHS so resource loading should still work, however existing hard coded dependencies on the "old" names may need to be evaluated.
- 8/7/2006
- Shawn Steele [MSFT]
Here is a code snippet that shows some of the formatting differences when dealing with numbers and currencies.
Code
Dim i As Integer = 1000000
Dim j As Integer = -1000
Dim en As CultureInfo = New CultureInfo("en-US")
Dim es As CultureInfo = New CultureInfo("es-ES")
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = en
Debug.WriteLine("The initial amount is: " & i)
Debug.WriteLine("The amount in " & Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.NativeName & "is: " & i.ToString("c"))
Debug.WriteLine("The amount in " & es.NativeName & "is: " & i.ToString("c", es))
Debug.WriteLine("The initial amount is: " & j)
Debug.WriteLine("The amount in " & Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.NativeName & "is: " & j.ToString("c"))
Debug.WriteLine("The amount in " & es.NativeName & "is: " & j.ToString("c", es))
Result
The initial amount is: 1000000
The amount in English (United States)is: $1,000,000.00
The amount in español (España)is: 1.000.000,00 €
The initial amount is: -1000
The amount in English (United States)is: ($1,000.00)
The amount in español (España)is: -1.000,00 €
- 6/9/2006
- Andy Gonzalez
- 6/6/2006
- Andy Gonzalez