WPF application customize shortdate when using stringformat={}{0:d}

Question

We are trying to allow the app to have its culture set at runtime and optionally override the way dates are displayed.

We create our own culture with:

private CultureInfo CreateCulture()
    {
        // start with basic culture object
        CultureInfo culture = Sys.Workspace.ServerProperties.UICulture ?? new CultureInfo(Properties.Settings.Default.DefaultCulture);

        // override data format
        var dateFmt = Sys.Workspace.ServerProperties.DateFormatOverride;
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(dateFmt))
        {
            culture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = dateFmt;
            culture.DateTimeFormat.LongDatePattern = dateFmt;
            if (dateFmt.Contains("/")) culture.DateTimeFormat.DateSeparator = "/";
            if (dateFmt.Contains("-")) culture.DateTimeFormat.DateSeparator = "-";
        }

        return culture;
    }

Then in the initialization of the app we do:

        var culture = CreateCulture();

        // set ui culture
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = culture;

        // set WPF culture
        LanguageProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(FrameworkElement), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(XmlLanguage.GetLanguage(culture.IetfLanguageTag)));

We set the "Sys.Workspace.ServerProperties.DateFormatOverride" value to be "dd-MMM-yyyy". This doesn't seem to be respected by the bindings though. For example:

  <TextBlock TextAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 
      Text="{Binding NoteDate, StringFormat={}{0:d}}" />

The NoteDate is a DataColumn with type of DateTime but displays the default cultures shortdate pattern.

If I set the main culture to en-GB I will get dd-mm-yyyy, if I set it to en-US I will get mm-dd-yyyy.

When I look at the Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture and currentUICulture it is set correctly, i.e. it is en-gb and the shortdatepattern and longdatepattern are dd-MMM-yyyy but the dates do not display in this format.

Answer 1

The reason is the FrameworkElement's don't look at the Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture for globalisation info.

Instead you have to define the culture manually for XAML elements...

Answered here