How to convert string to double with proper cultureinfo

Question

I have two nvarchar fields in a database to store the DataType and DefaultValue, and I have a DataType Double and value as 65.89875 in English format.

Now I want the user to see the value as per the selected browser language format (65.89875 in English should be displayed as 65,89875 in German). Now if the user edits from German format to 65,89875 which is 65.89875 equivalent in English, and the other user views from an English browser it comes as 6589875.

This happens because in the database it was stored as 65,89875 in the nvarchar column and when converted using English culture it becomes 6589875 since it considers , as a separator which is a decimal operator for German.

How do I get this working for all the browsers?

Pede

Why are you storing numbers as text to start with? If you can possibly change the schema, I'd strongly suggest that you do so. – Ossetia

Answer 1

You need to define a single locale that you will use for the data stored in the database, the invariant culture is there for exactly this purpose.

When you display convert to the native type and then format for the user's culture.

E.g. to display:

string fromDb = "123.56";
string display = double.Parse(fromDb, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).ToString(userCulture);

to store:

string fromUser = "132,56";
double value;
// Probably want to use a more specific NumberStyles selection here.
if (!double.TryParse(fromUser, NumberStyles.Any, userCulture, out value)) {
  // Error...
}
string forDB = value.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

PS. It, almost, goes without saying that using a column with a datatype that matches the data would be even better (but sometimes legacy applies).

Joanniejoao

double.TryParse() doesn't even have a parameter for the culture... This answer doesn't really help me ;/ – Gyasi

@sLw CultureInfo implements IFormatProvider: that overload allows you to pass the required locale. But – for 5 years – this had been sitting here with the second and third arguments reversed (corrected)! – Joanniejoao

Answer 2

You can change your UI culture to anything you want, but you should change the number separator like this:

CultureInfo info = new CultureInfo("fa-IR");
info.NumberFormat.NumberDecimalSeparator = ".";
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = info;
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;

With this, your strings converts like this: "12.49" instead of "12,49" or "12/49"

Bestride

Answer 3

Convert.ToDouble(x) can also have a second parameter that indicates the CultureInfo and when you set it to System.Globalization.CultureInfo InvariantCulture the result will allways be the same.

Seclusive

Answer 4

I took some help from MSDN, but this is my answer:

double number;
string localStringNumber;
string doubleNumericValueasString = "65.89875";
System.Globalization.NumberStyles style = System.Globalization.NumberStyles.AllowDecimalPoint;

if (double.TryParse(doubleNumericValueasString, style, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, out number))
    Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1}.", doubleNumericValueasString, number);
else
    Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}'.", doubleNumericValueasString);
localStringNumber =number.ToString(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("de-DE"));

Psychiatrist

Answer 5

You can convert the value user provides to a double and store it again as nvarchar, with the aid of FormatProviders. CultureInfo is a typical FormatProvider. Assuming you know the culture you are operating,

System.Globalization.CultureInfo EnglishCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-EN");
System.Globalization.CultureInfo GermanCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-de");

will suffice to do the neccesary transformation, like;

double val;
if(double.TryParse("65,89875", System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Float, GermanCulture,  out val))
{
    string valInGermanFormat = val.ToString(GermanCulture);
    string valInEnglishFormat = val.ToString(EnglishCulture);
}

if(double.TryParse("65.89875", System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Float, EnglishCulture,  out val))
{
    string valInGermanFormat = val.ToString(GermanCulture);
    string valInEnglishFormat = val.ToString(EnglishCulture);
}

Grasmere

@Richard, I have looked for it but could not find, thank you. – Grasmere

Answer 6

Use InvariantCulture. The decimal separator is always "." eventually you can replace "," by "." When you display the result , use your local culture. But internally use always invariant culture

TryParse does not allway work as we would expect There are change request in .net in this area:

https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/25868

Coupe

Answer 7

I have this function in my toolbelt since years ago (all the function and variable names are messy and mixing Spanish and English, sorry for that).

It lets the user use , and . to separate the decimals and will try to do the best if both symbols are used.

    Public Shared Function TryCDec(ByVal texto As String, Optional ByVal DefaultValue As Decimal = 0) As Decimal

        If String.IsNullOrEmpty(texto) Then
            Return DefaultValue
        End If

        Dim CurAsTexto As String = texto.Trim.Replace("$", "").Replace(" ", "")

        ''// You can probably use a more modern way to find out the
        ''// System current locale, this function was done long time ago
        Dim SepDecimal As String, SepMiles As String
        If CDbl("3,24") = 324 Then
            SepDecimal = "."
            SepMiles = ","
        Else
            SepDecimal = ","
            SepMiles = "."
        End If

        If InStr(CurAsTexto, SepDecimal) > 0 Then
            If InStr(CurAsTexto, SepMiles) > 0 Then
                ''//both symbols was used find out what was correct
                If InStr(CurAsTexto, SepDecimal) > InStr(CurAsTexto, SepMiles) Then
                    ''// The usage was correct, but get rid of thousand separator
                    CurAsTexto = Replace(CurAsTexto, SepMiles, "")
                Else
                    ''// The usage was incorrect, but get rid of decimal separator and then replace it
                    CurAsTexto = Replace(CurAsTexto, SepDecimal, "")
                    CurAsTexto = Replace(CurAsTexto, SepMiles, SepDecimal)
                End If
            End If
        Else
            CurAsTexto = Replace(CurAsTexto, SepMiles, SepDecimal)
        End If
        ''// At last we try to tryParse, just in case
        Dim retval As Decimal = DefaultValue
        Decimal.TryParse(CurAsTexto, retval)
        Return retval
    End Function

Bookworm