3 Digit currency code to currency symbol

Question

In C# is it possible to get a currency symbol, like \'£\', from the 3 character currency code, in this case \'GBP\'?

Is this possible either in SQL Server or in C#?<

Answer 1

.NET has CultureInfo.NumberFormat.CurrencySymbol

CultureInfo us = new CultureInfo("en-US");
CultureInfo gb = new CultureInfo("en-GB");
CultureInfo fr = new CultureInfo("fr-FR");

Console.Out.WriteLine(us.NumberFormat.CurrencySymbol); // $
Console.Out.WriteLine(gb.NumberFormat.CurrencySymbol); // £
Console.Out.WriteLine(fr.NumberFormat.CurrencySymbol); // €

But this requires the culture name, not "GBP". As far as I know its not possible directly from "GBP", etc.

The same information is also available via RegionInfo, along with the currency code:

RegionInfo us = new RegionInfo("en-US");
RegionInfo gb = new RegionInfo("en-GB");
RegionInfo fr = new RegionInfo("fr-FR");

Console.Out.WriteLine(us.CurrencySymbol); // $
Console.Out.WriteLine(gb.CurrencySymbol); // £
Console.Out.WriteLine(fr.CurrencySymbol); // €

Console.Out.WriteLine(us.ISOCurrencySymbol); // USD
Console.Out.WriteLine(gb.ISOCurrencySymbol); // GBP
Console.Out.WriteLine(fr.ISOCurrencySymbol); // EUR

I suppose one could conceivably use that to construct a map from ISO code to symbol.

The list of culture names is avaliable here.

EDIT: Well this seems to work:

public static class CurrencyCodeMapper
{
    private static readonly Dictionary SymbolsByCode;

    public static string GetSymbol(string code) { return SymbolsByCode[code]; }

    static CurrencyCodeMapper()
    {
        SymbolsByCode = new Dictionary();

        var regions = CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures)
                      .Select(x => new RegionInfo(x.LCID));

        foreach (var region in regions)
            if (!SymbolsByCode.ContainsKey(region.ISOCurrencySymbol))
                SymbolsByCode.Add(region.ISOCurrencySymbol, region.CurrencySymbol);
    }
}

Usage:

CurrencyCodeMapper.GetSymbol("USD") // $
CurrencyCodeMapper.GetSymbol("GBP") // £
CurrencyCodeMapper.GetSymbol("EUR") // €

Note, of course, that this does not produce a comprehensive list. In particular, it does not include old Eurozone currencies that have been superseded by the Euro. I cannot see any way around this but to manually add such currencies if you need them, for example SymbolsByCode.Add("FRF", "₣"); for French Francs.