Not wishing to condescend, but where it matters, there are standard ways of doing this. For example, the standard library of .NET and Java have date format loca

Not wishing to condescend, but where it matters, there are standard ways of doing this. For example, the standard library of .NET and Java have date format localisation so they can deal with local time zones and read and write dates. They have standard local methods for localized string joining strings, numbers and currencies. Here are two articles: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1ksz8yb7(v=vs.110).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1ksz8yb7(v=vs.110).... https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5hh873ya(v=vs.90).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5hh873ya(v=vs.90).a... If you don't want to write software for anyone but yourself or people in an identical environment that's fine, but if you want to write software for other people then there's lots of library support.