Get RegionInfo by country name?

Question

I want to be able to get RegionInfo by doing the following:

new RegionInfo("United Kingdom");

but this throws an exception and says that it is not recognised.

This page on RegionInfo says that an exception is thrown if 'name is not a valid country/region name'.

And yet this page specifies a list of predefined regions used by the class that and contains United Kingdom, so why doesn't creating a new RegionInfo with country name work?

Please, read the documentation well: The RegionInfo name is one of the two-letter codes defined in ISO 3166 for country/region. — Roberto Conte Rosito, Jan 10 '13 at 16:05

LukeHennerley · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10T16:35:25.850

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  var regions = CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures).Select(x => new RegionInfo(x.LCID));
  var englishRegion = regions.FirstOrDefault(region => region.EnglishName.Contains(name));

If you want to get RegionInfo by the country name, you could get an IEnumerable<RegionInfo> and then filter based on the EnglishName as above. This gives you the ability to populate things such as comboboxes too.

edited Jan 10 '13 at 16:35

answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:14

LukeHennerley

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But it would be null since the `EnglishName` is "English (United Kingdom)" ;-) So you might want to use `FirstOrdefault(r => r.EnglishName.Contains(name))` – Tim Schmelter Jan 10 '13 at 16:19
@LukeHennerley: It will be still `null` but now without an exception. +1 anyway since `Contains` instead of `==` would be too generous. – Tim Schmelter Jan 10 '13 at 16:29
It works for me, EnglishName is appearing as "United Kingdom" – DevDave Jan 10 '13 at 16:34
@Tyler I thought it would work too, the english name for `GB` on the `MSDN` is simply `United Kingdom` – LukeHennerley Jan 10 '13 at 16:36

Bridge · Answer 2 · 2013-01-10T16:58:04.033

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That same page you linked also says:

The RegionInfo name is one of the two-letter codes defined in ISO 3166 for country/region. Case is not significant; however, the Name, the TwoLetterISORegionName, and the ThreeLetterISORegionName properties return the appropriate code in uppercase.

The codes are on the page, and GB appears to be the 2 letter code for the UK (it's in code order to be difficult searching!). So try this:

new RegionInfo("GB");

Or if you're using .NET 2.0+, it's recommended you use the full culture name:

new RegionInfo("en-GB");

edited Jan 10 '13 at 16:58

answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:06

Bridge

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The Original Poster linked an old version of the spec. Since .NET 2.0 it is recommended to use e.g. `"en-GB"` instead of just `"GB"`. – Jeppe Stig Nielsen Jan 10 '13 at 16:39
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Great. The other possibilities with GB are: _Welsh (United Kingdom)_ `"cy-GB"` and _Scottish Gaelic (United Kingdom)_ `"gd-GB"`. – Jeppe Stig Nielsen Jan 10 '13 at 20:14

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:06

2

From MSDN;

A string that contains a two-letter code defined in ISO 3166 for country/region.

UNITED KINGDOM looks ok on Country names and code elements on the ISO website.

GB UNITED KINGDOM

Try with;

new RegionInfo("GB");

answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:06

Soner Gönül

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The Original Poster linked an old version of the spec. Since .NET 2.0 it is recommended to use e.g. `"en-GB"` instead of just `"GB"`. – Jeppe Stig Nielsen Jan 10 '13 at 16:39

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:09

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If I navigate to the constructor the summary I see in Visual Studio says:

name: A string that contains a two-letter code defined in ISO 3166 for country/region.-or-A string that contains the culture name for a specific culture, custom culture, or Windows-only culture. If the culture name is not in RFC 4646 format, your application should specify the entire culture name instead of just the country/region.

The entire culture name would be 'en-GB'.

Or you could use 'GB'

answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:09

Rob P.

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There's [a newer version of the doc page](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/atwc2921.aspx) compared to what the original question links to. It is clearly recommended to use a full specific culture, like `"en-GB"`, instead of just `"GB"`. We don't know what version of the framework is used by the Original Poster, but he should certainly go with `new RegionInfo("en-GB")`. – Jeppe Stig Nielsen Jan 10 '13 at 16:27

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:05

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Look at the MSDN page:

A string containing one of the two-letter codes defined in ISO 3166 for country/region.

You need the ISO 3166 code for the UK, not the name of the country.

Here's the code you need.

answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:05

Matt Burland

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 10 '13 at 16:09

Note this comment from the metadata for the parameter name which explains the change from .NET Framework 2.0 on:

    //     A string containing one of the two-letter codes defined in ISO 3166 for country/region.-or-Beginning
    //     in .NET Framework version 2.0, a string containing the culture name for a
    //     specific culture, custom culture, or Windows-only culture. If the culture
    //     name is not in RFC 4646 format, your application should specify the entire
    //     culture name, not just the country/region.

Get RegionInfo by country name?

6 Answers6

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