System.Globalization Namespace

Contains classes that define culture-related information, including language, country/region, calendars in use, format patterns for dates, currency, and numbers, and sort order for strings. These classes are useful for writing globalized (internationalized) applications. Classes such as StringInfo and TextInfo provide advanced globalization functionalities, including surrogate support and text element processing.

Classes

Calendar	Represents time in divisions, such as weeks, months, and years.
CharUnicodeInfo	Retrieves information about a Unicode character. This class cannot be inherited.
ChineseLunisolarCalendar	Represents time in divisions, such as months, days, and years. Years are calculated using the Chinese calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar.
CompareInfo	Implements a set of methods for culture-sensitive string comparisons.
CultureInfo	Provides information about a specific culture (called a locale for unmanaged code development). The information includes the names for the culture, the writing system, the calendar used, the sort order of strings, and formatting for dates and numbers.
CultureNotFoundException	The exception that is thrown when a method attempts to construct a culture that is not available.
DateTimeFormatInfo	Provides culture-specific information about the format of date and time values.
DaylightTime	Defines the period of daylight saving time.
EastAsianLunisolarCalendar	Represents a calendar that divides time into months, days, years, and eras, and has dates that are based on cycles of the sun and the moon.
GlobalizationExtensions	Provides globalization-related extension methods.
GregorianCalendar	Represents the Gregorian calendar.
HebrewCalendar	Represents the Hebrew calendar.
HijriCalendar	Represents the Hijri calendar.
IdnMapping	Supports the use of non-ASCII characters for Internet domain names. This class cannot be inherited.
ISOWeek	Provides static members to support the ISO week date that is part of the ISO 8601 date and time standard issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
JapaneseCalendar	Represents the Japanese calendar.
JapaneseLunisolarCalendar	Represents time in divisions, such as months, days, and years. Years are calculated as for the Japanese calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar.
JulianCalendar	Represents the Julian calendar.
KoreanCalendar	Represents the Korean calendar.
KoreanLunisolarCalendar	Represents time in divisions, such as months, days, and years. Years are calculated using the Gregorian calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar.
NumberFormatInfo	Provides culture-specific information for formatting and parsing numeric values.
PersianCalendar	Represents the Persian calendar.
RegionInfo	Contains information about the country/region.
SortKey	Represents the result of mapping a string to its sort key.
SortVersion	Provides information about the version of Unicode used to compare and order strings.
StringInfo	Provides functionality to split a string into text elements and to iterate through those text elements.
TaiwanCalendar	the Taiwan calendar.
TaiwanLunisolarCalendar	Represents the Taiwan lunisolar calendar. As for the Taiwan calendar, years are calculated using the Gregorian calendar, while days and months are calculated using the lunisolar calendar.
TextElementEnumerator	Enumerates the text elements of a string.
TextInfo	Defines text properties and behaviors, such as casing, that are specific to a writing system.
ThaiBuddhistCalendar	Represents the Thai Buddhist calendar.
UmAlQuraCalendar	Represents the Saudi Hijri (Um Al Qura) calendar.

Enums

CalendarAlgorithmType	Specifies whether a calendar is solar-based, lunar-based, or lunisolar-based.
CalendarWeekRule	Defines different rules for determining the first week of the year.
CompareOptions	Defines the string comparison options to use with CompareInfo.
CultureTypes	Defines the types of culture lists that can be retrieved using the GetCultures(CultureTypes) method.
DateTimeStyles	Defines the formatting options that customize string parsing for some date and time parsing methods.
DigitShapes	Specifies the culture-specific display of digits.
GregorianCalendarTypes	Defines the different language versions of the Gregorian calendar.
NumberStyles	Determines the styles permitted in numeric string arguments that are passed to the Parse and TryParse methods of the integral and floating-point numeric types.
TimeSpanStyles	Defines the formatting options that customize string parsing for the ParseExact and TryParseExact methods.
UnicodeCategory	Defines the Unicode category of a character.

Remarks

The following blogs include discussions of the System.Globalization namespace and its classes:

• /archive/blogs/shawnste/

• /archive/blogs/kierans/

Two of the .NET types in this namespace, CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder and CultureAndRegionModifiers, are found in an assembly named sysglobl.dll. To successfully compile code that uses these types, add a reference to sysglobl.dll.