SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to change the
current culture and current UI culture in an ASP.NET application. In the .NET
Framework, the
CultureInfo class from the
System.Globalization namespace provides
culture-specific information such as the associated language, country/region,
calendar, and cultural conventions. The
CurrentCulture property represents the
culture that the current thread uses. The
CurrentUICulture property represents the current
culture that Resource Manager uses to look up culture-specific resources at
run time. There are three ways to set the Culture information in an ASP.NET
application, Application Level, Page Level, and Thread Level.
back to the topApplication Level
Specify Application Level Culture information in the
Web.config file. To do this, follow these steps:
- Start Notepad (or any other text editor).
- Paste the following code in Notepad:
<configuration>
<system.web>
<globalization
culture="ja-JP"
uiCulture="zh-HK"
/>
</system.web>
</configuration> - Save the text file as Web.config in the root folder of
your Web server. For example, C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Web.config.
- Start another instance of Notepad. Paste the following code
in Notepad:
<%@Page Language="C#" %>
<% @Import Namespace="System.Globalization" %>
<html>
<head> </head>
<script runat=server>
public void Page_Load()
{
Response.Write ("Current Culture is " + CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.EnglishName);
}
</script>
<body></body>
</html>
- Save this text file as Application.aspx in the root folder
of your Web server.
- Start Internet Explorer, and then open
Application.aspx.
back to the
topPage Level
The Page Level Culture-specific information settings override the
Application Level Culture-specific information settings. Specify Page Level Culture information by using the
@Page
directive. To do this, follow these steps:
- Follow steps 1, 2, and 3 of the "Application Level" section to
create the Web.config file.
- Start another instance of Notepad. Paste the following code
in Notepad:
<%@Page Culture="fr-FR" Language="C#" %>
<% @Import Namespace="System.Globalization" %>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<script runat=server>
public void Page_Load()
{
Response.Write ("Current Culture is " + CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.EnglishName);
}
</script>
<body></body>
</html> - Save this text file as Page.aspx in the root folder of your
Web server.
- Start Internet Explorer, and then open Page.aspx. Note that
the Current Culture setting is French, although Japanese is specified as the current
culture in the Web.config file.
back to the
topThread Level
The Thread
Level Culture-specific information settings override the Page Level
Culture-specific information settings. Specify the Thread Level Culture-specific information by setting
the
CurrentCulture property or the
CurrentUICulture property of the current thread. To do this, follow these steps:
- Follow the steps 1, 2, and 3 of the "Application Level" section to
create the Web.config file.
- Start another instance of Notepad. Paste the following code
in Notepad:
<% @Page Culture="fr-FR" Language="C#" %>
<% @Import Namespace="System.Globalization" %>
<% @Import Namespace="System.Threading" %>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<script runat=server>
public void Page_Load()
{ // Display the Current Culture
Response.Write("Current Culture is " + Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.EnglishName + "<br>");
// Modify the Current Culture
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("de-DE");
Response.Write("Changing Culture to " + Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.EnglishName + "<br>");
}
</script>
<body>
</body>
</html> - Save this text file as Thread.aspx in the root folder of your
Web server.
- Start Internet Explorer, and then open Thread.aspx. Note that
the Current Culture setting is German, although French is specified at the page level and
Japanese is specified in the Web.config file.
back to the
top