Can we change the LCID in VBA? (A2K SP3)

Topic

New Reply

I am running an Access application together with an CJK-character input software. However, the input software forcibly changed my LCID value, and hence changed my date setting among other things. I can access the changed LCID value and retrieve its settings (which doesn’t have the date setting that I want), but apparently I can’t change the LCID value – I actually want to revert the LCID back to my original setting. Can anyone throw some light on it?

Plese don’t tell me to use the fool-proof method of date input with a calendar display irrespective of LCID setting. I know it but my users find it slow and cumbersome.

Reply | Quote

Replies

Okay, I’ll bite. What’s an LCID? Changing the date/time on your machine is simple.

Date=Date()+1, for example, with change your machines date to tomorrow. (Both Date() and Time() work both ways (read/write)…Now() is read only).

Reply | Quote

According to the online help for Office XP (I don’t have 2000), you can only change the LCID (Locale Identifier) if you have installed the Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack. In that case, the Microsoft Office XP Language Settings dialog displays an extra tab for setting the user interface and help language.

The registry keys containing the language settings are in HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice10.0CommonLanguageResources, but I don’t know if changing UILanguage or HelpLanguage is the only thing needed to switch languages. For Office 2000 it would be in …9.0… instead of …10.0… Be very careful if you’re going to edit the registry directly!

Reply | Quote

Actually I didn’t explain the reason why I wanted, if possible, to change the LCID of the system. The CJK-Input program that I ran together with my Access application unceremoniously changed the LCID of my system setting from 1033 to 1028 or 2052, depending on the setup of the CJK-Input program. I used short date format for date entry and the local “official” format is dd-MM-yyyy, and it was set in my Access application. However, the short date format dd-MM-yyyy isn’t available under LCID 1028 or 2052, and there is no way I can twist the short date entry format without changing the LCID value. The short date format used by the program was M-d-yyyy (the other format variations all with month appearing first). Furthermore, after using and exiting from the CJK-Input program, I need to manually reset my regional short date setting to dd-MM-yyyy.

If I can set the LCID value back to 1033, I guess I can set the short date format to dd-MM-yyyy too while leaving the CJK-Input function unaffected.

I will sure give Hans’s suggestion a try.

Reply | Quote

Hans, I checked the values at the registry location you suggested. In my system, there were quite a number of LCID entries, with all ‘Off’ except 1033 which was shown as ‘On’. 1033 is my setting: US English. Then I just executed the CJK-Input program, and checked the registry again. In addition to 1033 which was still stated as ‘On’, I had another LCID 2052 which was marked as ‘On’. But my Regional Settings were already changed, and so was my shortdate format. Exiting from the CJK-Entry program didn’t turn the registry entry of 2052 to ‘Off’, as was expected.

When I ran my Access application with the CJK-Entry program in memory, and access the system LCID from VBA, the default system LCID was 2052. I tried to change the value to, say 1033, and set the LCID. I failed to reset the LCID. Maybe we are allowed to change the LCID values in VBA.

Here are the codes I use (the codes aren’t original, but modified from codes that I obtained from Internet sites. Sorry I can’t remember the name of the sites where these codes were extracted and gave them credits):

‘ Regional Date Settings in VBA
Public Declare Function GetSystemDefaultLCID Lib “Kernel32” () As Long
Public Declare Function GetUserDefaultLCID Lib “Kernel32” () As Long

Public Declare Function GetLocaleInfo Lib “Kernel32” _
Alias “GetLocaleInfoA” _
(ByVal locale As Long, _
ByVal LCTYPE As Long, _
ByVal lpLCData As String, _
ByVal cchData As Long) As Long

Public Declare Function SetLocaleInfo Lib “Kernel32” _
Alias “SetLocaleInfoA” _
(ByVal locale As Long, _
ByVal LCTYPE As Long, _
ByVal lpLCData As String) As Long

Public Declare Function PostMessage Lib “user32” _
Alias “PostMessageA” _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, _
lParam As Any) As Long

Public Const LOCALE_SENGLANGUAGE As Long = &H1001 ‘ English name of localized language
Public Const LOCALE_SSHORTDATE = &H1F ‘ short date format string
Public Const LOCALE_ICALENDARTYPE = &H1009 ‘ Set calendar type to Western
Public Const HWND_BROADCAST As Long = &HFFFF&
Public Const WM_SETTINGCHANGE As Long = &H1A

Private Const strShortDateBaru = “dd/MM/yyyy”
Private strShortDateAsal As String

Public Function GetUserLocaleInfo(ByVal dwLocaleID As Long, _
ByVal dwLCType As Long) As String

Dim strReturn As String
Dim lngRet As Long

‘ Call the function passing the Locale type variable to retrieve
‘ the required size of the string buffer needed
lngRet = GetLocaleInfo(dwLocaleID, dwLCType, strReturn, Len(strReturn))

‘ if successful (lngRet > 0)
If lngRet Then
strReturn = Space$(lngRet) ‘ pad the buffer with spaces
‘ and call again passing the buffer
lngRet = GetLocaleInfo(dwLocaleID, dwLCType, strReturn, Len(strReturn))
‘ if successful (lngRet > 0)
If lngRet Then
‘ lngRet holds the size of the string including the terminating null
GetUserLocaleInfo = Left$(strReturn, lngRet – 1)
End If
End If

End Function

‘ Set short date format of system
Function SetShortDateFormat() As String

Dim LCID As Long ‘ Locale ID
Dim strDateFormat As String
Dim strLocale As String

‘ LCID = GetUserDefaultLCID()
LCID = GetSystemDefaultLCID()
‘ Get user’s original short date string
strShortDateAsal = GetUserLocaleInfo(LCID, LOCALE_SSHORTDATE)
‘ Set the new short date format
Call SetLocaleInfo(LCID, LOCALE_SSHORTDATE, strShortDateBaru)
If LCID = 2052 Then
strLocale = “1033” ‘ LCID=”1033″ => English US
Call SetLocaleInfo(LCID, LOCALE_SSHORTDATE, strShortDateBaru)
End If
‘ To make the change take place through the system immediately
Call PostMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0&, ByVal 0&)

End Function

‘ Reset short date format of system back to original
Function ResetShortDateFormat() As String

Dim LCID As Long

LCID = GetSystemDefaultLCID()
‘ Reset the original short date format
Call SetLocaleInfo(LCID, LOCALE_SSHORTDATE, strShortDateAsal)
‘ To make the change take place through the system immediately
Call PostMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0&, ByVal 0&)

End Function

Note: Calendar type isn’t available for LCID 2052.

Reply | Quote