Decimal formatting

[robertybob]

Hi

I have an application that could be used all around the world. Obviously different cultures have different methods of writing decimals.

I am importing System.Globalisation but it seems if the code has something like Convert.ToDecimal("1.2") it fails if the user's machine is set up to, say, a comma format.

I'm not sure why since I'd have thought it would convert to whatever the user's machine thinks a decimal is.

How do I deal with this in the most effective way?

Should I use Double? Does that eliminate any cultural problems? Or do I need a different way to force an input to a decimal?

Thanks

[gabemr]

Hey there,

Have you tried using the CultureInfo.CurrentCulture property? Can you write some code with the current problem as an example to see if I can help you better?

Here is a link that might help: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...vs.110%29.aspx

[robertybob]

Hi Gabe,

Thanks for the reply.

From research here, I think I'm agreed that forcing the culture on every thread is the way forward.

However I cannot seem to get the code used in the link provided to be accepted by Visual Studio - maybe I'm missing something or I'm not declaring something.

So, say I have...

Imports System.Globalization
Imports System.Threading
 
Public Class My_Form
Private clientname As String = ""
etc....
 
End Class
 

Where do I add the culture info to force the entire form to "en-GB" - and what code is required?

Many thanks!

[robertybob]

I notice also that the MSDN page says to insert code in the My_Form.Designer before the InitializeComponents but, again, if I try to paste the suggested code in there Visual Studio tells me it isn't compatible.

Thanks

[robertybob]

This might be a stupid observation, but would simply changing the Language on the form to English(United Kingdom) force the culture on the form to en-GB for all users irrespective of their machine settings?

[robertybob]

Ok - seems the answer to the above is 'no' so I'm back to trying to force the culture :)

[gabemr]

Hey,

Sorry I couldn't get to your replies on time. You could try changing the current culture on a form load event.

For example:

Imports System.Globalization
Imports System.Threading
Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = New CultureInfo("en-GB")
    End Sub
End Class
 

Okay so now, lets say this form has a button, a textbox, and a label that will show the output of an operation. When the user enters a number in the textbox, the label's text will change to the provided number in a decimal format and the current culture.

Code example:

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
 
        Dim textEntry As Decimal = TextBox1.Text()
        textEntry = Convert.ToDecimal(textEntry)
 
        Label1.Text = textEntry.ToString("C", CultureInfo.CurrentCulture)
    End Sub

Hope this helps

[robertybob]

Thanks Gabe.

At the moment this seems to be eliminating the crashes so seems ok. Was a simpler solution than expected from reading the MSDN docs.

I have read somewhere that this will need adding to any threads opened by the main thread so will add there too. Not sure about backgroundWorker threads.

Thanks for the assistance!