Thread.CurrentCulture Property

Definition

Gets or sets the culture for the current thread.

public System.Globalization.CultureInfo CurrentCulture { get; set; }

Property Value

An object that represents the culture for the current thread.

Exceptions

The property is set to null.

.NET Core and .NET 5+ only: Reading or writing the culture of a thread from another thread is not supported.

Examples

The following example shows the threading statement that allows the user interface of a Windows Forms application to display in the culture that is set in Control Panel. Additional code is needed.

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class UICulture : Form
{
    public UICulture()
    {
        // Set the user interface to display in the
        // same culture as that set in Control Panel.
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = 
            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;

        // Add additional code.
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        Application.Run(new UICulture());
    }
}

Remarks

The CultureInfo object that is returned by this property, together with its associated objects, determine the default format for dates, times, numbers, currency values, the sorting order of text, casing conventions, and string comparisons. See the CultureInfo class to learn about culture names and identifiers, the differences between invariant, neutral, and specific cultures, and the way culture information affects threads and application domains. See the CultureInfo.CurrentCulture property to learn how a thread's default culture is determined, and how users set culture information for their computers.

Important

The CurrentCulture property doesn't work reliably when used with any thread other than the current thread. In .NET Framework, reading the property is reliable, although setting it for a thread other than the current thread is not. On .NET Core, an InvalidOperationException is thrown if a thread attempts to read or write the CurrentCulture property on a different thread. We recommend that you use the CultureInfo.CurrentCulture property to retrieve and set the current culture.

Beginning with the .NET Framework 4, you can set the CurrentCulture property to a neutral culture. This is because the behavior of the CultureInfo class has changed: When it represents a neutral culture, its property values (in particular, the Calendar, CompareInfo, DateTimeFormat, NumberFormat, and TextInfo properties) now reflect the specific culture that is associated with the neutral culture. In earlier versions of the .NET Framework, the CurrentCulture property threw a NotSupportedException exception when a neutral culture was assigned.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1