System.Globalization.CultureInfo Class

Summary

Represents information about a specific culture including the names of the culture, the writing system, and the calendar used, as well as access to culture-specific objects that provide methods for common operations, such as formatting dates and sorting strings.

C# Syntax:

[Serializable] public class CultureInfo : ICloneable, IFormatProvider

This type is safe for multithreaded operations.

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.

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". Some culture names have prefixes that specify the script; for example, "Cy-" specifies the Cyrillic script, "Lt-" specifies the Latin script.

The following predefined CultureInfo names and identifiers are accepted and used by this class 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
Cy-az-AZ	0x082C	Azeri (Cyrillic) - Azerbaijan
Lt-az-AZ	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 - Macau 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-KZ	0x0440	Kyrgyz - Kazakhstan
lv	0x0026	Latvian
lv-LV	0x0426	Latvian - Latvia
lt	0x0027	Lithuanian
lt-LT	0x0427	Lithuanian - Lithuania
mk	0x002F	Macedonian
mk-MK	0x042F	Macedonian - FYROM
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
Cy-sr-SP	0x0C1A	Serbian (Cyrillic) - Serbia
Lt-sr-SP	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
Cy-uz-UZ	0x0843	Uzbek (Cyrillic) - Uzbekistan
Lt-uz-UZ	0x0443	Uzbek (Latin) - Uzbekistan
vi	0x002A	Vietnamese
vi-VN	0x042A	Vietnamese - Vietnam

The culture identifier "0x040A" can be used to create a CultureInfo for "Spanish - Spain" that uses the traditional sort order, instead of the default international sort order (culture identifier "0x0c0a").

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 (""). CultureInfo.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. The invariant culture must be used only by processes that require culture-independent results, such as system services; otherwise, it produces results that might be linguistically incorrect or culturally inappropriate.

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.

A DateTimeFormatInfo or a NumberFormatInfo can be created only for the invariant culture or for specific cultures, not for neutral cultures.

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 the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property is set to true, the properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.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.

This class implements the ICloneable interface to enable duplication of CultureInfo objects. It also implements IFormatProvider to supply formatting information to applications.

System.Globalization Namespace | RegionInfo

System.Globalization.CultureInfo Member List:

Public Constructors

ctor #1	Overloaded: .ctor(int culture) Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by the culture identifier.
ctor #2	Overloaded: .ctor(string name) Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by name.
ctor #3	Overloaded: .ctor(int culture, bool useUserOverride) Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by the culture identifier and on the Boolean that specifies whether to use the user-selected culture settings from the system.
ctor #4	Overloaded: .ctor(string name, bool useUserOverride) Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by name and on the Boolean that specifies whether to use the user-selected culture settings from the system.

Public Properties

Calendar	Read-only Gets the default calendar used by the culture.
CompareInfo	Read-only Gets the CompareInfo that defines how to compare strings for the culture.
CurrentCulture	Read-only Gets the CultureInfo that represents the culture used by the current thread.
CurrentUICulture	Read-only Gets the CultureInfo that represents the current culture used by the Resource Manager to look up culture-specific resources at run time.
DateTimeFormat	Read-write Gets or sets a DateTimeFormatInfo that defines the culturally appropriate format of displaying dates and times.
DisplayName	Read-only Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in the language of the localized version of .NET Framework.
EnglishName	Read-only Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in English.
InstalledUICulture	Read-only Gets the CultureInfo that represents the culture installed with the operating system.
InvariantCulture	Read-only Gets the CultureInfo that is culture-independent (invariant).
IsNeutralCulture	Read-only Gets a value indicating whether the current CultureInfo represents a neutral culture.
IsReadOnly	Read-only Gets a value indicating whether the current CultureInfo is read-only.
LCID	Read-only Gets the culture identifier for the current CultureInfo.
Name	Read-only Gets the culture name in the format "<languagecode2>-<country/regioncode2>".
NativeName	Read-only Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in the language that the culture is set to display.
NumberFormat	Read-write Gets or sets a NumberFormatInfo that defines the culturally appropriate format of displaying numbers, currency, and percentage.
OptionalCalendars	Read-only Gets the list of optional calendars that can be used by the culture.
Parent	Read-only Gets the CultureInfo that represents the parent culture of the current CultureInfo.
TextInfo	Read-only Gets the TextInfo that defines the writing system associated with the culture.
ThreeLetterISOLanguageName	Read-only Gets the ISO 639-2 three-letter code for the language of the current CultureInfo.
ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName	Read-only Gets the three-letter code for the language as defined in the Windows API.
TwoLetterISOLanguageName	Read-only Gets the ISO 639-1 two-letter code for the language of the current CultureInfo.
UseUserOverride	Read-only Gets a value indicating whether the current CultureInfo uses the user-selected culture settings.

Public Methods

ClearCachedData	Refreshes cached culture-related information.
Clone	Creates a copy of the current CultureInfo.
CreateSpecificCulture	Creates a CultureInfo that represents the specific culture that is associated with the specified name.
Equals	Overridden: Determines whether the specified object is the same culture as the current CultureInfo.
GetCultures	Gets the list of supported cultures filtered by the specified CultureTypes.
GetFormat	Gets an object that defines how to format the specified type.
GetHashCode	Overridden: Serves as a hash function for the current CultureInfo, suitable for use in hashing algorithms and data structures, such as a hash table.
GetType (inherited from System.Object)	See base class member description: System.Object.GetType Derived from System.Object, the primary base class for all objects.
ReadOnly	Returns a read-only wrapper around the specified CultureInfo.
ToString	Overridden: Returns a string containing the name of the current CultureInfo in the format "<languagecode2>-<country/regioncode2>".

Protected Methods

Finalize (inherited from System.Object)	See base class member description: System.Object.Finalize Derived from System.Object, the primary base class for all objects.
MemberwiseClone (inherited from System.Object)	See base class member description: System.Object.MemberwiseClone Derived from System.Object, the primary base class for all objects.

Hierarchy:

• System.Object
• System.Globalization.CultureInfo

System.Globalization.CultureInfo Member Details

Summary

Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by the culture identifier.

C# Syntax:

public CultureInfo(    int culture );

culture

A predefined CultureInfo identifier or the CultureInfo.LCID property of an existing CultureInfo. A predefined CultureInfo identifier or the CultureInfo.LCID property of an existing CultureInfo.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentOutOfRangeException	culture is less than zero.
ArgumentException	culture is not a valid culture identifier.

The predefined culture identifiers are listed in the CultureInfo class topic.

The culture parameter is mapped to the corresponding National Language Support (NLS) locale identifier. The value of the culture parameter becomes the value of the CultureInfo.LCID property of the new CultureInfo.

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. This constructor creates a CultureInfo that uses those overrides and sets the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property to true.

The properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.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.

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Summary

Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by name.

C# Syntax:

public CultureInfo(    string name );

name

A predefined CultureInfo name or the CultureInfo.Name of an existing CultureInfo. A predefined CultureInfo name or the CultureInfo.Name of an existing CultureInfo.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	name is null.
ArgumentException	name is not a valid culture name.

The CultureInfo 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". The predefined CultureInfo names are listed in the CultureInfo class topic.

The CultureInfo.LCID property of the new CultureInfo is set to the culture identifier associated with the specified name.

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. This constructor creates a CultureInfo that uses those overrides and sets the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property to true.

The properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.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.

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Summary

Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by the culture identifier and on the Boolean that specifies whether to use the user-selected culture settings from the system.

C# Syntax:

public CultureInfo(    int culture,    bool useUserOverride );

culture

A predefined CultureInfo identifier or the CultureInfo.LCID property of an existing CultureInfo.

useUserOverride

A Boolean that denotes whether to use the user-selected culture settings (true) or the default culture settings (false).

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentOutOfRangeException	culture is less than zero.
ArgumentException	culture is not a valid culture identifier.

The predefined culture identifiers are listed in the CultureInfo class topic.

The culture parameter is mapped to the corresponding National Language Support (NLS) locale identifier. The value of the culture parameter becomes the value of the CultureInfo.LCID property of the new CultureInfo.

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. The useUserOverride parameter denotes whether the current CultureInfo uses those overrides or whether it uses the default values of the culture settings. The value of the useUserOverride parameter becomes the value of the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property.

If the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property is set to true, the properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.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, set the useUserOverride parameter to false.

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Summary

Initializes a new instance of the CultureInfo class based on the culture specified by name and on the Boolean that specifies whether to use the user-selected culture settings from the system.

C# Syntax:

public CultureInfo(    string name,    bool useUserOverride );

name

A predefined CultureInfo name or the CultureInfo.Name of an existing CultureInfo. A predefined CultureInfo name or the CultureInfo.Name of an existing CultureInfo.

useUserOverride

A Boolean that denotes whether to use the user-selected culture settings (true) or the default culture settings (false).

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	name is null.
ArgumentException	name is not a valid culture name.

The CultureInfo 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". The predefined CultureInfo names are listed in the CultureInfo class topic.

The CultureInfo.LCID property of the new CultureInfo is set to the culture identifier associated with the specified name.

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. The useUserOverride parameter denotes whether the current CultureInfo uses those overrides or whether it uses the default values of the culture settings. The value of the useUserOverride parameter becomes the value of the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property.

If the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property is set to true, the properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.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, set the useUserOverride parameter to false.

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Summary

Gets the default calendar used by the culture.

C# Syntax:

public virtual Calendar Calendar {get;}

The CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat property is an instance of the DateTimeFormatInfo class that includes properties that allow users to customize the date and time formatting associated with a specific Calendar.

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Summary

Gets the CompareInfo that defines how to compare strings for the culture.

C# Syntax:

public virtual CompareInfo CompareInfo {get;}

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Summary

Gets the CultureInfo that represents the culture used by the current thread.

C# Syntax:

public static CultureInfo CurrentCulture {get;}

The culture is a property of the executing thread. This read-only property returns Thread.CurrentCulture. When a thread is started, its culture is initially determined by using GetUserDefaultLCID from the Windows API. To change the culture used by a thread, set Thread.CurrentCulture to the new culture.

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Summary

Gets the CultureInfo that represents the current culture used by the Resource Manager to look up culture-specific resources at run time.

C# Syntax:

public static CultureInfo CurrentUICulture {get;}

The culture is a property of the executing thread. This property returns Thread.CurrentUICulture. When a thread is started, its UI culture is initially determined by using GetUserDefaultUILanguage from the Windows API. To change the UI culture used by a thread, set Thread.CurrentUICulture to the new culture.

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Summary

Gets or sets a DateTimeFormatInfo that defines the culturally appropriate format of displaying dates and times.

C# Syntax:

public virtual DateTimeFormatInfo DateTimeFormat {get; set;}

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	The property is set to null.

A DateTimeFormatInfo can be created only for the invariant culture or for specific cultures, not for neutral cultures.

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 the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property is set to true, the properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.OptionalCalendars), the results of the methods and the values of the properties are undefined.

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 (""). CultureInfo.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. The invariant culture must be used only by processes that require culture-independent results, such as system services; otherwise, it produces results that might be linguistically incorrect or culturally inappropriate.

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.

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Summary

Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in the language of the localized version of .NET Framework.

C# Syntax:

public virtual string DisplayName {get;}

For example, if the .NET Framework English version is installed, the CultureInfo.DisplayName for the specific culture U.S. English is "English (United States)". If the .NET Framework Spanish version is installed, regardless of the language that the system is set to display, the culture name is displayed in Spanish; therefore, the CultureInfo.DisplayName for the specific culture U.S. English is "Ingles (Estados Unidos)".

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Summary

Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in English.

C# Syntax:

public virtual string EnglishName {get;}

For example, the CultureInfo.EnglishName for the specific culture U.S. English is "English (United States)".

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Summary

Gets the CultureInfo that represents the culture installed with the operating system.

C# Syntax:

public static CultureInfo InstalledUICulture {get;}

In a localized operating system, such as Japanese Windows 2000 Professional, this property returns the culture of the operating system. This property is the equivalent of GetSystemDefaultUILanguage in the Windows API.

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Summary

Gets the CultureInfo that is culture-independent (invariant).

C# Syntax:

public static CultureInfo InvariantCulture {get;}

The invariant culture is culture-insensitive. You can specify the invariant culture by name using an empty string (""). CultureInfo.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. The invariant culture must be used only by processes that require culture-independent results, such as system services; otherwise, it produces results that might be linguistically incorrect or culturally inappropriate.

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Summary

Gets a value indicating whether the current CultureInfo represents a neutral culture.

C# Syntax:

public virtual bool IsNeutralCulture {get;}

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.

If this property returns false, the culture is either a specific culture or the invariant culture.

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Summary

Gets a value indicating whether the current CultureInfo is read-only.

C# Syntax:

public bool IsReadOnly {get;}

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Summary

Gets the culture identifier for the current CultureInfo.

C# Syntax:

public virtual int LCID {get;}

The culture identifier is mapped to the corresponding National Language Support (NLS) locale identifier.

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Summary

Gets the culture name in the format "<languagecode2>-<country/regioncode2>".

C# Syntax:

public virtual string Name {get;}

The CultureInfo.Name property follows 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, the CultureInfo.Name for the specific culture U.S. English is "en-US".

If the culture is a neutral culture, its CultureInfo.Name is in the format "<languagecode2>". For example, the CultureInfo.Name for the neutral culture English is "en".

The predefined CultureInfo names are listed in the CultureInfo class topic.

To get the full name of the culture, use CultureInfo.DisplayName, CultureInfo.EnglishName, or CultureInfo.NativeName.

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Summary

Gets the culture name in the format "<languagefull> (<country/regionfull>)" in the language that the culture is set to display.

C# Syntax:

public virtual string NativeName {get;}

The culture's full name might not display properly if the system is not set to display the culture's language correctly. For example, if the CultureInfo.Name is "ja-JP" for Japanese (Japan), CultureInfo.NativeName does not display correctly on a system that is set to English only. However, multilingual operating systems, such as Windows 2000, display CultureInfo.NativeName correctly.

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Summary

Gets or sets a NumberFormatInfo that defines the culturally appropriate format of displaying numbers, currency, and percentage.

C# Syntax:

public virtual NumberFormatInfo NumberFormat {get; set;}

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	The property is set to null.

A NumberFormatInfo can be created only for the invariant culture or for specific cultures, not for neutral cultures.

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 the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property is set to true, the properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.OptionalCalendars), the results of the methods and the values of the properties are undefined.

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 (""). CultureInfo.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. The invariant culture must be used only by processes that require culture-independent results, such as system services; otherwise, it produces results that might be linguistically incorrect or culturally inappropriate.

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" (Chinese Simplified) and "zh-CHT" (Traditional Chinese) are neutral cultures.

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Summary

Gets the list of optional calendars that can be used by the culture.

C# Syntax:

public virtual Calendar[] OptionalCalendars {get;}

Optional calendars are other calendars that can be used with the culture represented by the current CultureInfo.

The CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat property is an instance of the DateTimeFormatInfo class that includes properties that allow users to customize the date and time formatting associated with a specific Calendar.

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Summary

Gets the CultureInfo that represents the parent culture of the current CultureInfo.

C# Syntax:

public virtual CultureInfo Parent {get;}

A parent culture is a higher-level culture that encompasses only the set of information that is common among its children. For example, the parent culture of "en-US" is "en"; the parent culture of "en" is the invariant culture.

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Summary

Gets the TextInfo that defines the writing system associated with the culture.

C# Syntax:

public virtual TextInfo TextInfo {get;}

The CultureInfo.TextInfo property provides culture-specific casing information for strings.

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 the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property is set to true, the properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.OptionalCalendars), the results of the methods and the values of the properties are undefined.

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Summary

Gets the ISO 639-2 three-letter code for the language of the current CultureInfo.

C# Syntax:

public virtual string ThreeLetterISOLanguageName {get;}

For example, the three-letter abbreviation for English is "eng".

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Summary

Gets the three-letter code for the language as defined in the Windows API.

C# Syntax:

public virtual string ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName {get;}

For example, the three-letter code for English (U.S.) as defined in the Windows API is "enu".

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Summary

Gets the ISO 639-1 two-letter code for the language of the current CultureInfo.

C# Syntax:

public virtual string TwoLetterISOLanguageName {get;}

For example, the two-letter abbreviation for English is "en".

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Summary

Gets a value indicating whether the current CultureInfo uses the user-selected culture settings.

C# Syntax:

public bool UseUserOverride {get;}

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. This property denotes whether the current CultureInfo uses those overrides (true) or whether it uses the default values (false) of the culture settings.

If the CultureInfo.UseUserOverride property is set to true, the properties of the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, the CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance, and the CultureInfo.TextInfo instance are also retrieved from the user settings. If the user settings are incompatible with the culture associated with the CultureInfo (for example, if the selected calendar is not one of the CultureInfo.OptionalCalendars), the results of the methods and the values of the properties are undefined.

This property is set when the CultureInfo object is created.

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Summary

Refreshes cached culture-related information.

C# Syntax:

public void ClearCachedData();

Information, such as the default culture and format patterns, is cached the first time it is requested. However, that information can change during the life of the AppDomain, for example, when the user modifies Regional and Language Options (or Regional Options or Regional Settings) in Control Panel in Windows. The CultureInfo class does not detect changes in the system settings automatically. Use the CultureInfo.ClearCachedData method to refresh that information in the CultureInfo class, based on the current system settings.

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Summary

Creates a copy of the current CultureInfo.

C# Syntax:

public virtual object Clone();

Return Value:

A copy of the current CultureInfo.

Implements:

ICloneable.Clone

The clone is writable even if the original CultureInfo is read-only; therefore, the properties of the clone can be modified.

A shallow copy of an object is a copy of the object only. If the object contains references to other objects, the shallow copy does not create copies of the referred objects. It refers to the original objects instead. In contrast, a deep copy of an object creates a copy of the object and a copy of everything directly or indirectly referenced by that object.

CultureInfo.Clone is a shallow copy with exceptions. The objects returned by the CultureInfo.NumberFormat and the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat properties are also cloned, so that the CultureInfo clone can modify the properties of CultureInfo.NumberFormat and CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat without affecting the original CultureInfo.

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Summary

Creates a CultureInfo that represents the specific culture that is associated with the specified name.

C# Syntax:

public static CultureInfo CreateSpecificCulture(    string name );

name

A predefined CultureInfo name or the name of an existing CultureInfo. A predefined CultureInfo name or the name of an existing CultureInfo.

Return Value:

A CultureInfo that represents the invariant culture, if name is "" (invariant culture).

-or-

A CultureInfo that represents the default specific culture associated with name, if name is a neutral culture.

-or-

A CultureInfo that represents name, if name is already a specific culture.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	name is null.
ArgumentException	name is not a valid culture name. -or- The culture specified by name does not have a specific culture associated with it. For example: "zh-CHS" or "zh-CHT".

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 (""). CultureInfo.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. The invariant culture must be used only by processes that require culture-independent results, such as system services; otherwise, it produces results that might be linguistically incorrect or culturally inappropriate.

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.

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Summary

Determines whether the specified object is the same culture as the current CultureInfo.

C# Syntax:

public override bool Equals(    object value );

value

The object to compare with the current CultureInfo.

Return Value:

true if value is the same culture as the current CultureInfo; otherwise, false.

This method overrides Object.Equals.

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Inherited
See base class member description: System.Object.Finalize

C# Syntax:

~CultureInfo();

For more information on members inherited from System.Object click on the link above.

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Summary

Gets the list of supported cultures filtered by the specified CultureTypes.

C# Syntax:

public static CultureInfo[] GetCultures(    CultureTypes types );

types

A combination of CultureTypes values that filter the cultures to retrieve.

Return Value:

An array of type CultureInfo that represents the supported cultures filtered by the specified CultureTypes values.

Setting types to the CultureTypes.SpecificCultures value returns all specific cultures only. Setting types to the CultureTypes.NeutralCultures value returns all neutral cultures and the invariant culture. Setting types to the CultureTypes.AllCultures value returns all specific cultures, all neutral cultures, and the invariant culture.

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Summary

Gets an object that defines how to format the specified type.

C# Syntax:

public virtual object GetFormat(    Type formatType );

formatType

The Type for which to get a formatting object. This method only supports the NumberFormatInfo and DateTimeFormatInfo types.

Return Value:

A NumberFormatInfo object containing the default number format information for the current CultureInfo, if formatType is the Type object for the NumberFormatInfo class.

-or-

A DateTimeFormatInfo object containing the default date and time format information for the current CultureInfo, if formatType is the Type object for the DateTimeFormatInfo class.

-or-

null, if formatType is any other object.

Implements:

IFormatProvider.GetFormat

CultureInfo.GetFormat implements IFormatProvider.GetFormat.

NumberFormatInfo provides the culture-specific numeric format used in conjunction with the Format methods in the base data types.DateTimeFormatInfo controls how the date and time values are formatted for a specific culture.

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Summary

Serves as a hash function for the current CultureInfo, suitable for use in hashing algorithms and data structures, such as a hash table.

C# Syntax:

public override int GetHashCode();

Return Value:

A hash code for the current CultureInfo.

This method overrides Object.GetHashCode.

This method generates the same hash code for two objects that are equal according to the CultureInfo.Equals method.

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Inherited
See base class member description: System.Object.GetType

C# Syntax:

public Type GetType();

For more information on members inherited from System.Object click on the link above.

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Inherited
See base class member description: System.Object.MemberwiseClone

C# Syntax:

protected object MemberwiseClone();

For more information on members inherited from System.Object click on the link above.

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Summary

Returns a read-only wrapper around the specified CultureInfo.

C# Syntax:

public static CultureInfo ReadOnly(    CultureInfo ci );

ci

The CultureInfo to wrap.

Return Value:

A read-only CultureInfo wrapper around ci.

Exceptions

Exception Type	Condition
ArgumentNullException	ci is null.

This wrapper prevents any modifications to ci, to the ci. CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat instance, or to the ci. CultureInfo.NumberFormat instance.

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Summary

Returns a string containing the name of the current CultureInfo in the format "<languagecode2>-<country/regioncode2>".

C# Syntax:

public override string ToString();

Return Value:

A string containing the name of the current CultureInfo 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.

This method overrides Object.ToString.

This method returns the value of the CultureInfo.Name property. The CultureInfo 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". The predefined CultureInfo names are listed in the CultureInfo class topic.

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