Microsoft ASP.NET QuickStarts Tutorial

Setting Culture and Encoding

   Encodings
   Using CultureInfo
   Using RegionInfo
   Section Summary

Internally, ASP.NET handles all string data as Unicode. By using the ResponseEncoding attribute in the following sample, ASP.NET is asked to also send the page with UTF-8 encoding. Note that any arbitrary encoding could be chosen without affecting the .aspx file. ASP.NET also sets the CharSet attribute on the Content Type of the HTTP header according to the value of ResponseEncoding. This enables browsers to determine the encoding without a metatag or having to guess the correct encoding from the content.

VB i18n_encodings.aspx

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Note: If some characters appear as empty rectangles, you must install the additional language support for Japanese and Hebrew. To do this on a Windows 2000 platform, open Regional Options on the Control Panel and add the required language support.

The preceding sample demonstrates how to use different national character sets on the same page. The page contains English text (ASCII), German text with one umlaut character, Japanese text, and Hebrew text (uses dir="rtl"). The source for the page itself is stored with codepage-neutral UTF-8 encoding, as specified in Web.config.

The Page directive specifies ResponseEncoding on the page itself:

<%@Page ... ResponseEncoding="utf-8"%>

Note: The ResponseEncoding in Web.config is also specified as UTF-8, so repeating it on the page is redundant. However, if the .aspx file is moved to a server that does not use UTF-8, the file would still specify the right encoding.

Using CultureInfo

Code on ASP.NET pages can use the CultureInfo class to supply localized settings. In the following sample, the properties of a culture, initially the culture of the server, is set as follows:


culture = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture

If the name of a new culture is submitted, it will be used instead:


culture = New CultureInfo(NewCulture.Value)

The submitted culture is set to be the new default value and some properties are displayed:


<%
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = culture
%>
...
Current Culture is <%= CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.Name %>
(<%=Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.Name%>),
<%= CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.EnglishName %>/<%=CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.NativeName%>,
The localized date is: <%= DateTime.Now.ToString("D", CultureInfo.CurrentCulture) %>

VB i18n_cultureinfo.aspx

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Using RegionInfo

Code on ASP.NET pages can also use the RegionInfo class to supply regional settings. In the following sample, the properties of a region are displayed. The initial display is the server's default region.


region = RegionInfo.CurrentRegion
...
Current region is <%= region.EnglishName %> (<%=region.DisplayName%>),
currency is <%= region.CurrencySymbol %>.

On subsequent requests the entered region is displayed:


region = New RegionInfo(NewRegion.Value)

VB I18N_Regional.aspx

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Section Summary

ASP.NET can use pages that are stored with UTF-8 encoding to support different national characters.
The CultureInfo class can be set and used programmatically to localize pages.
The RegionInfo class can be used to provide regional settings on ASP.NET pages.