Implement Globalization in VB.NET using CultureInfo class

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CultureInfo class provides culture-specific information in .NET applications. This information includes language, sublanguage, country or region, day names, month names, calendar etc. It also provides culture specific conversions of numbers, currencies, dates or strings. In the following tutorial, I will show you how you can retrieve this information from different cultures available in .NET Framework.

To use CultureInfo class you need to import System.Globalization namespace which contains many classes used in the following code such as RegionInfo, DateTimeFormatInfo or NumberFormatInfo.

Following code is loading all specific cultures available in .NET Framework in the listbox.

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) 
    ' Load All Specific Cultures 
    Dim allCultures As CultureInfo() = CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures) 
    For Each culture As CultureInfo In allCultures 
        listBox1.Items.Add(culture.EnglishName) 
    Next 
End Sub​

When user select any culture from the listbox following code retrieve that culture, set current application and user interface culture and then display culture specific information on different labels.

Private Sub listBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    Try
        Dim allCultures As CultureInfo() = CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures)
        Dim index As Integer = listBox1.SelectedIndex
       
        Dim c As CultureInfo = DirectCast(allCultures.GetValue(index), CultureInfo)
       
        ' Set Current Application and User Interface Culture
       
        System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = c
        System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = c
       
        label1.Text = "Application Culture Name: " + c.Name
        label2.Text = "Application Culture Native Name: " + c.NativeName
        label3.Text = "Application Culture English Name: " + c.EnglishName
        label4.Text = "Application Culture Neutral Name: " + c.TwoLetterISOLanguageName
        label5.Text = "Application Culture Language Name: " + c.ThreeLetterISOLanguageName
        label6.Text = "Application Culture Windows Name: " + c.ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName
       
        ' RegionInfo Object
       
        Dim r As New RegionInfo(c.Name)
       
        label7.Text = "Region English Name: " + r.CurrencyEnglishName
        label8.Text = "Currency Symbol: " + r.CurrencySymbol
        label9.Text = "Region English Name: " + r.EnglishName
       
        ' DateTimeFormatInfo Object is used
        ' to get DayNames and MonthNames
       
        Dim days As String() = c.DateTimeFormat.DayNames
        listBox2.Items.Clear()
        For Each day As String In days
            listBox2.Items.Add(day)
        Next
       
        Dim months As String() = c.DateTimeFormat.MonthNames
        listBox3.Items.Clear()
        For Each month As String In months
            listBox3.Items.Add(month)
        Next
       
        ' Formatting Currency and Numbers
       
        label10.Text = "Full Date Time Pattern: " + c.DateTimeFormat.FullDateTimePattern
        label11.Text = "Formatted Date: " + DateTime.Now.ToString("d", c.DateTimeFormat) 
            
        label12.Text = "Formatted Number: " + 65000.ToString("C", c.NumberFormat)
    Catch ex As Exception
    End Try
End Sub 

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This Post Has 16 Comments

  1. SBL

    Great and useful

    thanks

  2. SBL

    Great and useful

    thanks

  3. Gilbert Agbodamakou

    Great!!!
    its very nice, i like your work. thank you for sharing.

  4. Gilbert Agbodamakou

    Great!!!
    its very nice, i like your work. thank you for sharing.

  5. Fandi

    I realized there was no handles mybase.load on the load sub and no handles listbox1.selectedIndexChanged.
    Added those codes and it worked gracefully.
    Thanks for the tutorials. It was great.

  6. Fandi

    Hi…
    I’m sorry. i tried your code but was unsuccessful.
    When i run the application, listbox1 was not populated. I imported system.globalization namespace, copied and pasted the form load sub, and listbox sub.

    Where did i go wrong?

  7. Fandi

    I realized there was no handles mybase.load on the load sub and no handles listbox1.selectedIndexChanged.
    Added those codes and it worked gracefully.
    Thanks for the tutorials. It was great.

  8. Fandi

    Hi…
    I’m sorry. i tried your code but was unsuccessful.
    When i run the application, listbox1 was not populated. I imported system.globalization namespace, copied and pasted the form load sub, and listbox sub.

    Where did i go wrong?

  9. parag

    Best

  10. ashwin hegde

    This Coding Is Excellent , Great Job Man.

  11. ashwin hegde

    This Coding Is Excellent , Great Job Man.

  12. Mustafa

    Thank you.

  13. Mustafa

    Thank you.

  14. EmilM

    use
    Dim r As New RegionInfo(c.LCID)
    instead of
    Dim r As New RegionInfo(c.Name)

  15. EmilM

    use
    Dim r As New RegionInfo(c.LCID)
    instead of
    Dim r As New RegionInfo(c.Name)

  16. Tarun

    too good. hats off 2 u

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