Abdulla AbdelHaq Blog

Hi Abdulla,

I read this post this morning at it made me realize that my CMS mojoPortal is not really localizing everything as I thought. I always thought that calling .ToString() on an int or decimal would automaticaly format it according to the CultureInfo of the executing thread. I mean it does format it but it doesn't localize the digits. To me it seems like a shortcoming of ASP.NET localization that it does not do this automatically.

I thought there must be some way to make it work so I spent the afternoon doing my own investigation and trying to find a way to make it just work with .ToString()

I hoped it would work like this:

if ((CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TwoLetterISOLanguageName == "ar") && (!CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.IsNeutralCulture))

           {

               CultureInfo arabic = new CultureInfo(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.Name);

               arabic.NumberFormat.DigitSubstitution = DigitShapes.NativeNational;

               string[] arabicDigits = new string[] { "٠", "١", "٢", "٣", "٤", "٥", "٦", "٧", "٨", "٩" };

               arabic.NumberFormat.NativeDigits = arabicDigits;

               Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = arabic;

               Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = arabic;

           }

I tried all the DigitSubstitution Enums but no matter what I tried I could not make it work. It seems to really be limited to the machine's region settings.

So your solution seems the only real way to do it.

I converted your method to C# SubstituteArabicDigits(string input) and then created an extension method for int so I can call .ToLocalString() on any int and internally use your method like this if the culture is Arabic

public static string ToLocalString(this int i)

       {

           switch (CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TwoLetterISOLanguageName)

           {

               case "ar":

                   return SubstituteArabicDigits(i.ToString());

               default:

                   return i.ToString();

           }

       }

I'm thinking I can implement similar solutions for other languages based on your example and extension methods for decimal, double etc.

So thanks for sharing this strategy and pointing out that digit localization doesn't just happen automatically in ASP.NET.

Hi,

I need convert English text to Arabic in VB.net

any idea please

joeaudette could you post your C# method? thanks

nevermind joeaudette. here is my C# version just in case anyone needs it.

       public string ConvertToArabicNumerals(string input)

       {

           System.Text.UTF8Encoding utf8Encoder = new UTF8Encoding();

           System.Text.Decoder utf8Decoder = utf8Encoder.GetDecoder();

           System.Text.StringBuilder convertedChars = new System.Text.StringBuilder();

           char[] convertedChar = new char[1];

           byte[] bytes = new byte[]{217,160};

           char[] inputCharArray = input.ToCharArray();

           foreach (char c in inputCharArray)

           {

               if(char.IsDigit(c))

               {

                   bytes[1] = Convert.ToByte(160 + char.GetNumericValue(c));

                   utf8Decoder.GetChars(bytes, 0, 2, convertedChar, 0);

                   convertedChars.Append(convertedChar[0]);

               }

               else

               {

                   convertedChars.Append(c);

               }

           }

           return convertedChars.ToString();

       }

Adullah, thanks for the link. Do you know how to test if a string is in Arabic? do you have to test the individual characters to see if they fall within the arabic character set or is there an easier way to do it. thanks

Great! thanks for your help Abdullah

can you pleaqse give me the sample code to convert a string into arabic language:

For example:

string str="this string will be in arabic";

i want to convert it into arabic....

can u please help me?

thanks for the reply but through localization i can only translate static text i want to translate text dynamic that will come from database

Ass salam alikom,hi abdullah i am developing a website,n i have to develop the website both in arabic in english,so how can i change the gridview colums into arabic as the gridview is attached to sqldatasource,so can u help me out,i am developing the website in vb bro so can forward me some code

Has anyone got a version of this function that reverses the job, translates the Arabic numbers into English?

Hi Abdullah, Well I thought this post was little old and didn't expect you to reply, Actually you did a great job with this method, I'm sorry I should have asked you!

So since you replied, Do you have any idea how to get this function reversed?

Hi Abdullah,

Your posting was really helpfull....

can we type arabic numerals in a textbox in vb6? if yes, plz explain..

I changed locale settings in xp and set digit substitution to "context" in regional settings..but still can't type. Plz help..

Thanks & Regards

Hi

Thanks for your replay...

Now i am able to type arabic digits in textbox. But only after typing an arabic alphabet. Therefore i have to extract digits from the textbox. If you can remember something from Old vb6, plz let me know... Thanks...

Care for a LINQ method?

public static string GetNumberArabic(int index)

{

 CultureInfo ci = new CultureInfo("ar-AE");

 int number = index;

 StringBuilder res = new StringBuilder((int)Math.Log10(index));

 do

 {

   res.Append(ci.NumberFormat.NativeDigits[number % 10]);

   number /= 10;

 } while (number > 0);

 return res.ToString().ToCharArray().Select<char, string>(ch => ch.ToString()).Aggregate((accumulator, a) => a + accumulator);

}

hello again

my page is UTF-8

it uploads an access databse to the server (.mdb)

it reads the data and displays some records in a gridview , every thing is OK

but the data in the gridview is not in the apporpriate encoding

شكراً عبدالله، وعيد مبارك عليك انشالله

That was great but I need the numbers to be displayed in arabic for the paging of a gridview or the numbers of a calendar? How can I do that? I think the function mentioned here can't do that ??

Hi guys...

(Note: Sorry, standing in the garage having a quick smoke, ran across this and had to reply real quick...)

One VERY easy way to do this that works for ALL languages (i.e. ANY to ANY) is to simply pay attention to the: <CultureInfo>.NumberFormat.NativeDigits.

The NativeDigits is an array of 10 characters that represent the numbers for that culture, where '0' is in the 0 index position.

For example, to convert from English Culture to Arabic (any to any really):

1. Create an instance of the SOURCE culture:

CultureInfo sourceCulture = new CultureInfo("En");

2. Create an instance of the TARGET culture:

CultureInfo targetCulture = new CultureInfo("ar-AE");

3. Now, simply iterate through you SOURCE string, find the character in the CURRENT culture array, and take that same character from that index location in the TARGET array:

// sourceValue is assumed to be in the SOURCEculture for this example

string sourceValue = "12345";

// Throw the NativeDigits into a Collection<T> for simplicity

Collection<string> items = new Collection<string>(sourceCulture.NumberFormatInfo.NativeDigits);

// Create a string to hold our new value

// Yea, yea - should be a StringBuilder, this is a sample though :)

string convertedValue = String.Empty;

// Now iterate and convert...

for (int i = 0; i < sourceValue.Length; i++)

{

  // Get the value at the position

  string newChar = new string(value[i], 1);

  // Find the index position of the character in

  // our source array

  int idx = items.IndexOf(newChar);

  // Quick simple sanity check to make sure we found

  // the position

  if (idx >= 0)

  {

     // Now take the corresponding position value

     convertedValue += targetCulture.NumberFormatInfo.NativeDigits[idx];

  }

  else

  {

     // oops, we found some other character

     // bah, just shove it in

     convertedValue += newChar;

  }

}

(Sorry, didn't compile this and my smoke is done :) Time to go inside.  I think you get the drift...)

Hi guys...

(Note: Sorry, standing in the garage having a quick smoke, ran across this and had to reply real quick...)

One VERY easy way to do this that works for ALL languages (i.e. ANY to ANY) is to simply pay attention to the: <CultureInfo>.NumberFormat.NativeDigits.

The NativeDigits is an array of 10 characters that represent the numbers for that culture, where '0' is in the 0 index position.

For example, to convert from English Culture to Arabic (any to any really):

1. Create an instance of the SOURCE culture:

CultureInfo sourceCulture = new CultureInfo("En");

2. Create an instance of the TARGET culture:

CultureInfo targetCulture = new CultureInfo("ar-AE");

3. Now, simply iterate through you SOURCE string, find the character in the CURRENT culture array, and take that same character from that index location in the TARGET array:

// sourceValue is assumed to be in the SOURCEculture for this example

string sourceValue = "12345";

// Throw the NativeDigits into a Collection<T> for simplicity

Collection<string> items = new Collection<string>(sourceCulture.NumberFormatInfo.NativeDigits);

// Create a string to hold our new value

// Yea, yea - should be a StringBuilder, this is a sample though :)

string convertedValue = String.Empty;

// Now iterate and convert...

for (int i = 0; i < sourceValue.Length; i++)

{

  // Get the value at the position

  string newChar = new string(value[i], 1);

  // Find the index position of the character in

  // our source array

  int idx = items.IndexOf(newChar);

  // Quick simple sanity check to make sure we found

  // the position

  if (idx >= 0)

  {

     // Now take the corresponding position value

     convertedValue += targetCulture.NumberFormatInfo.NativeDigits[idx];

  }

  else

  {

     // oops, we found some other character

     // bah, just shove it in

     convertedValue += newChar;

  }

}

(Sorry, didn't compile this and my smoke is done :) Time to go inside.  I think you get the drift...)