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C#: Globalization and localization
The document discusses globalization and localization in .NET applications. Globalization refers to internationalizing applications to support different cultures, while localization is the process of translating applications into other languages. The .NET Framework includes classes and features to develop applications that can adapt to different locales. Key aspects covered include using CultureInfo to represent cultures, formatting numbers and dates appropriately for cultures, and developing applications with a single code base that supports multiple languages through localization.
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C#: Globalization and localization
- 2. Introduction Globalization isabout internationalizing applications: the application supports number and date formats depending on the culture. Localization is about translating applications for specific cultures.
- 3. Globalization (Internationalization) Its is a process of creating an application that supports localized user interfaces. Localization = translation It is the process of translating the applications into different languages.
- 4. If youplan on distributing your application to an international audience, there are a number of things you'll need to keep in mind during the design and development phases. Even if you don't have such plans, a small effort up front can make things considerably easier should your plans change in future versions of your application. Services built into the .NET Framework make it easy to develop a single application that can adapt to different locales using managed development with Visual Basic or Visual C#. Visual Studio .NET was designed from the start to make developing for an international audience easy by taking advantage of services built into the .NET Framework. The following topics will help introduce you to the internationalization features built into Visual Studio .NET.
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- 6. Cultures and Regions The world is divided into multiple cultures and regions, and applications have to be aware of these cultural and regional differences. A culture is a set of preferences based on a user’s language and cultural habits. Some examples are en-AU, en-CA, en-GB, and en-US for the English language in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States. While one region has multiple languages, one language can be spoken in different regions; for example, Spanish is spoken in Mexico, Spain, Guatemala, Argentina, and Peru, to name but a few.
- 7. The mostimportant class in the System.Globalization namespace is the class CultureInfo. CultureInfo represents a culture and defines calendars, formatting of numbers and dates, and sorting strings that are used with the culture. The class RegionInfo represents regional settings (such as the currency) and shows if the region is using the metric system. In the same region, you can use multiple languages. One example is the region of Spain with its Basque (eu- ES), Catalan (ca-ES), Spanish (es-ES), Galician (gl-ES) cultures.
- 8. Types of Culture Invarient Neutral Specific
- 9. Invariant Culture Shouldbe used for storing data in a culture independent way Should not be used for User Interface elements Has no country/region Eg: CultureInfo ci = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture
- 10. Neutral Culture Associatedwith a language not with country/region Can be used for UI related options Cannot be used for retrieving information such as date/time formatting Specified using <languagecode2> format: Arabic – “ar” Exceptions – zh-CHT, zh-CH Eg. using System.Globalization; … CultureInfo ci = new CultureInfo(“fr”);
- 11. Specific Culture Associatedwith Language and a Country/Region fr Neutral Culture fr-FR Specific Culture Provides additional information about the date, time, currency and number formatting options Can be used wherever a Neutral culture is used, the opposite is not true Eg. using System.Globalization; … CultureInfo ci = new CultureInfo(“fr-FR”);
- 12. Formatting and Parsing Formatting Standard formatting characters Custom formatting characters Parsing Configurable with styles TryParse – no conversion exceptions ParseExact for date/time values Formatting Culture-appropriate Type Object Parsing String
- 13. Numeric Formats • Store as binary data type if possible • Integer, decimal, floating-point • Invariant storage as text • Format using CultureInfo.InvariantCulture • Use standard format character “R” (reversible) for floating point numbers
- 14. Currencies decimal dec =decimal.Parse("$1000000.23", NumberStyles.Currency,CultureInfo.CurrentCulture); System.Console.WriteLine("{0:C}", dec); Output: $1,000,000.23 Preferably store as decimal with meta data Culture DateTime Use 3rd party service for conversion When storing as text use invariant culture Reversible text floating-point format Currency text format: ¤1,000,000.23
- 15. System.Globalization Namespace Includes classes for functionality such as: Culture-aware string comparison Coté vs. Côte (culture dependent) Date & Time formatting yy/mm/dd vs. dd/mm/yy Numeric formatting 12,000.00 vs. 12.000,00 Calendars Gregorian and non-Gregorian
- 16. CultureInfo class provides culture specific information Controls date comparisonstring comparison number comparison etc CultureInfo userculture=Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture (Used for calculation and Internal Manipulation) CultureInfo userculture=Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture (Used for DisplayPurpose)
- 17. CurrentCulture Thread Date and number formatting String comparison and casing It determines the results of culture dependant functions. You can define the CurrentCulture object with specific cultures and not with neutral cultures.
- 18. CurrentUICulture Thread It determines which resources are loaded by the Resource Manager if you have provided resources in multiple languages. Because this controls only which language is used you can define CurrentUICulture with either neutral or specific cultures.
- 19. Changing the Culture programmatically CultureInfoci = new CultureInfo(culture); // set culture for formatting Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = ci; // set culture for resources Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = ci;
- 20. Implementing localization Whenthe Localizable property is set to true, the resource file resX is generated form the form. BookOfTheDay.resX change the Language property of the form and the properties of some form elements, a new resource file is generated for the specified language. BookOfTheDayForm.de.resX
- 21. Culture-aware Classes Any API which takes a culture, or an IFormatProvider Culture-sensitive by default Examples: System.Globalization.CompareInfo System.Globalization.StringInfo System.Globalization.Calendar System.Resources System.DateTime System.String
- 22. Calendar Classes Includes support for: Gregorian Calendar Hebrew Calendar Hijiri Calendar Japanese Calendar Julian Calendar Korean Calendar Taiwan Calendar Thai Buddhist Calendar Base Calendar class from which custom calendars can be derived
- 23. DateTime Provides methods that enable culture-sensitive operations on a DateTime. Use the DateTimeFormatInfo Class to format and display a DateTime based on culture. DateTimeFormatInfo Defines how DateTime values are formatted and displayed, depending on the culture.
- 24. CompareInfo Provides a set of methods that can be used to perfomr culture-sensitive string comparisons The CultureInfo class has a CompareInfo property that is an instance of the CompareInfo class The String.Compare method uses the information in the CultureInfo.CompareInfo property to compare strings NumberFormatInfo Defines how currency, decimal separator and other numeric symbols are formatted and displayed based on culture.