.NET (3.5) formats times using dots instead of colons as TimeSeparator for it-IT culture?

Question

According to Wikipedia (and confirmed in an answer by Dario Solera), in Italy they format times using colons:

The 24-hour notation is used in writing

Answer 1

Following from the conversation under Oded's answer, this is probably what you should be using:

var culture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("it-IT");
var stringValue = new TimeSpan(100, 100, 100, 100, 100).ToString(null, culture);
var timespan = TimeSpan.Parse(stringValue, culture);
// Another example
var culture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("it-IT");
var stringValue = DateTime.Now.ToString(null, culture);
var dateTime = DateTime.Parse(stringValue, culture);

Answer 2

The hours/minutes separator (TimeSeparator) in Italy seems to be a ., not a :.

You are specifically formatting for the Italian culture, so it follows that this is what will be used.

In a DateTime format string, the : is a place holder for this separator - if the culture defines . or , or anything else as the separator, that's what will be substituted when formatting the DateTime with that culture.

Answer 3

I can guarantee in Italy we use colons to separate hour and minute digits, and we use the 24-hour format. Wikipedia is correct (at least this time).

Your problem is likely that you're not setting the Thread's UI culture. Something like this should work:

Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("it-IT");

Answer 4

This seems to be a .NET 3.5 issue. In .NET 4.0 the code you posted uses a colon as expected. Seems like a strange breaking change between the framework versions, but seems like upgrading to .NET 4 will solve the problem.