Internationalization and Localization: Overview

Updated February 2023

Architecting internationalization and localization, or what I just call globalization, is a very important part of any project. This is how Wikipedia describes it:

In computing, internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional peculiarities, and technical requirements of a target locale. Internationalization is the process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes. Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by translating text and adding locale-specific components. Localization (which is potentially performed multiple times, for different locales) uses the infrastructure or flexibility provided by internationalization (which is ideally performed only once, or as an integral part of ongoing development).

Taking globalization into account when architecting and coding takes very little time once you know how. Doing it later when someone from a different country wants to use your app will be very expensive and very time-consuming. I’ve been through this process many times in my career and it’s never easy and it’s always tedious.

These articles will show when you need to use globalization, even when the performance might not be the best. Believe me, you will thank me later. I typically do not use globalization patterns for application logging. I hope that the .NET team will continue to work on performance when it comes to globalization.

Articles

Internationalization and Localization Performance: Formatting Strings

Internationalization and Localization Performance: String Validation with Equals()

Internationalization and Localization Performance: Comparing Strings

Internationalization and Localization Performance: Collection Count() & Any() with Predicate

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