CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windows-phone-7datetimelocalization
alfah
alfah

Reputation: 2085

date changes while parsing in windows phone for different languages

I have come across a strange problem. MY app has been localized to support 5 languages. It is a calendar sort of app, and i have an option of writing notes for a particular date. So when I change my language settings to Russian, enter a note on a date, eg 1/3/2012 and on 6/3/2012. This date and note is stored in an IsolatedStorageFile and i exit the app.

Now, I change my language settings to english, and the notes are stored in 3/1/2012 and 3/6/2012. The month and date are reversed !! :(

This is how i write the notes to the file

using (IsolatedStorageFileStream fileStream = storagefile.OpenFile("NotesFile", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
    StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(fileStream);

    for (int i = 0; i < m_noteCount; i++)
    {
        writer.Write(m_arrNoteDate[i].ToShortDateString());
        writer.Write(" ");
        writer.Write(m_arrNoteString[i]);
        writer.WriteLine("~`");
    }
    writer.Close();
}

Reading is from file is done like this

if (notes.Substring(i, 1) == " ")
{
      m_arrNoteString[count] = notes.Substring(i + 1);
      string temp = notes.Substring(0, i);
      m_arrNoteDate[count] = DateTime.Parse(temp);
      count++;
      nextCharacter = (char)reader.Read();
      notes = "";
      break;
}

the parser reads date in a format according to language the device is set to? Any work arounds?

Alfah

Upvotes: 0

Views: 309

Answers (3)

Clafou
Clafou

Reputation: 15400

By default, the conversion between dates and strings (and vice versa) uses the current culture. For your purpose, since you are not converting to/from strings for the purpose of displaying dates to the user but to persist them, you should make your logic independent of the current culture by specifying a given culture. And the invariant culture is your best best.

So replace this:

writer.Write(m_arrNoteDate[i].ToShortDateString());

With this:

writer.Write(m_arrNoteDate[i].ToString("d", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

And replace this:

m_arrNoteDate[count] = DateTime.Parse(temp);

With this:

m_arrNoteDate[count] = DateTime.Parse(temp, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Upvotes: 1

BBR
BBR

Reputation: 700

Use m_arrNoteDate[i].ToString("d", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) when writing date to have it independent of the thread culture.

Upvotes: 1

Ku6opr
Ku6opr

Reputation: 8126

DateTime.Parse has an overloaded method where you can pass CultureInfo.InvariantCulture to read it independently of region settings. Also, you need to save value accordingly too.

Also, look at Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture and Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture. You can set specific culture to application globally.

Upvotes: 1

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