Is Int32.ToString() culture-specific?

Question

I'm running a beta version of ReSharper, and it's giving me warnings for the following code: ``` int id; // ... DoSomethingWith(id.ToString()); ``` The warning is on the `id.ToString()` call, and it's telling me "Specify a culture in string conversion explicitly". I understand the warning, and I know how to fix it -- just change the code to the much more unwieldy `id.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)`. But my question is: is that necessary? I mean, obviously it's important to specify the culture when you're using types like `DateTime` (different cultures have different date formats) and `Double` (different characters used for the decimal point). But `Int32.ToString()`, at least in the en-US and invariant cultures, doesn't add any formatting at all. No commas, no decimal points, no dollar signs, nothing. So what would there be to vary by culture? Are there some cultures that actually add some sort of formatting when you call the parameterless `Int32.ToString()`? Or is this a bug i…

Accepted Answer

The Operating System allows to change the negative sign for numbers.

```
Control panel -> 
   Language and regional settings -> 
         Additional settings -> 
             Negative sign
```

So, current culture could have overridden the negative sign. In this case you need to respect the regional settings, this is the reason of the warning. You can also change the negative sign programatically:

```
    CultureInfo culture = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;
    // Make a writable clone
    culture = (CultureInfo) culture.Clone();
    culture.NumberFormat.NegativeSign = "!";
```

Is Int32.ToString() culture-specific?

Solution

Problem