How to use WPF to display localizable and dynamic text?

Question

I'm new to WPF and trying to mash together some concepts I'm reading about.

What I'm trying to do is a build a localizable UI. For simplicity, let's say I am building a UI with string: "The file takes up 2 GB in disk space."

The "2 GB" portion is dynamic. The value could change depending upon the file the user selects. Secondly, a conversion should take from ulong (file size bytes) to string (friendly size, using appropriate units e.g. KB, MB, GB, TB, etc.).

I was thinking an IValueConverter would be most appropriate for the byte count to friendly-file-size conversion. I was also thinking that I'd store "The file takes up {0} in disk space." as a string resource.

I'm not sure the IValueConverter will be of use here. Can it be used with String.Format()? I don't see how it could be used in a binding directly, because we're inserting the conversion result into the localizable text template.

Is there a better way to approach this?

Localization more refers to date and currency formats used by various cultures. To my knowledge KB, MB, GB, and TB are the same in all cultures. So I would just use a converter. — paparazzo, Feb 21 '12 at 16:19
It's obvious that KB, MB, GB, and TB are what he refers to as "dynamic text" and that the "localizable" part is `The file takes up {0} in disk space.` - for i18n/translation. — ANeves, Jan 29 '14 at 12:08

H.B. · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-21T16:08:41.223

1

Bindings have a StringFormat property, you should be able to use that if you can somehow reference your localized string (possibly using a custom markup extension).

edited Feb 21 '12 at 16:08

answered Feb 21 '12 at 16:03

H.B.

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Surely this is a standard problem, localizable text templates, isn't it? – jglouie Feb 21 '12 at 19:51
@LemonBeagle: If you look around you might find something here on SO, i for one hate localization and don't want anything to do with it if i can avoid it. If you store the localized strings in your application resources you can reference them using `{x:Static prop:Resources.SomeString}` where prop is mapped to the `Properties` clr-namespace which usually contains those resources. If you use a different mechanism you need to come up with a different method. – H.B. Feb 21 '12 at 20:02
I used this link here: http://www.hardcodet.net/2009/03/lookup-resource-value-using-markup-extension and it worked beautifully – jglouie Feb 21 '12 at 22:04
@LemonBeagle: As i said a custom markup extension is handy for those things, glad it worked out for you. – H.B. Feb 21 '12 at 22:08

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:03

Use this handy bytes name to text converter and an IValueConverter

Converting bytes to GB in C#?

    private string formatBytes(float bytes)
        {
            string[] Suffix = { "B", "KB", "MB", "GB", "TB" };
            int i;
            double dblSByte=0;
            for (i = 0; (int)(bytes / 1024) > 0; i++, bytes /= 1024)
                dblSByte = bytes / 1024.0;
            return String.Format("{0:0.00} {1}", dblSByte, Suffix[i]);
        }

public class BytesSuffixConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
    {
        float bytes = (float)value;
        return formatBytes(bytes);
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
    {
        throw new Exception("Not Supported.");
    }
}

Thanks, but there is more to the problem. I also want to translate the text to other languages, and dynamically insert this converter's output into that text — jglouie, Feb 21 '12 at 16:56

How to use WPF to display localizable and dynamic text?

2 Answers2