1page.title=Supporting Different Languages
2parent.title=Supporting Different Devices
3page.tags=strings,localizing,localization,resources,formats,l10n
4helpoutsWidget=true
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6trainingnavtop=true
7
8@jd:body
9
10
11<div id="tb-wrapper">
12  <div id="tb">
13    <h2>This class teaches you to</h2>
14    <ol>
15      <li><a href="#CreateDirs">Create Locale Directories and String Files</a></li>
16      <li><a href="#UseString">Use the String Resources</a></li>
17    </ol>
18    <h2>You should also read</h2>
19    <ul>
20    <li><a href="{@docRoot}distribute/tools/localization-checklist.html">Localization Checklist</a></li>
21      <li><a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/localization.html">Localization with Resources</a></li>
22    </ul>
23  </div>
24</div>
25
26<p>It’s always a good practice to extract UI strings from your app code and keep them
27in an external file.  Android makes this easy with a resources directory in each Android
28project.</p>
29
30<p>If you created your project using the Android SDK
31Tools (read <a href="{@docRoot}training/basics/firstapp/creating-project.html">Creating an
32Android Project</a>), the tools create a <code>res/</code> directory in the top level of
33the project. Within this <code>res/</code> directory are subdirectories for various resource
34types. There are also a few default files such as <code>res/values/strings.xml</code>, which holds
35your string values.</p>
36
37
38<h2 id="CreateDirs">Create Locale Directories and String Files</h2>
39
40<p>To add support for more languages, create additional <code>values</code> directories inside
41<code>res/</code> that include a hyphen and the ISO language code at the end of the
42directory name. For example, <code>values-es/</code> is the directory containing simple
43resourcess for the Locales with the language code "es".  Android loads the appropriate resources
44according to the locale settings of the device at run time. For more information, see
45 <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html#AlternativeResources">Providing Alternative Resources</a>.</p>
46
47<p>Once you’ve decided on the languages you will support, create the resource subdirectories and
48string resource files. For example:</p>
49
50<pre class="classic no-pretty-print">
51MyProject/
52    res/
53       values/
54           strings.xml
55       values-es/
56           strings.xml
57       values-fr/
58           strings.xml
59</pre>
60
61<p>Add the string values for each locale into the appropriate file.</p>
62
63<p>At runtime, the Android system uses the appropriate set of string resources based on the
64locale currently set for the user's device.</p>
65
66<p>For example, the following are some different string resource files for different languages.</p>
67
68
69<p>English (default locale), <code>/values/strings.xml</code>:</p>
70
71<pre>
72&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
73&lt;resources>
74    &lt;string name="title">My Application&lt;/string>
75    &lt;string name="hello_world">Hello World!&lt;/string>
76&lt;/resources>
77</pre>
78
79
80<p>Spanish, <code>/values-es/strings.xml</code>:</p>
81
82<pre>
83&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
84&lt;resources>
85    &lt;string name="title">Mi Aplicación&lt;/string>
86    &lt;string name="hello_world">Hola Mundo!&lt;/string>
87&lt;/resources>
88</pre>
89
90
91<p>French, <code>/values-fr/strings.xml</code>:</p>
92
93<pre>
94&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
95&lt;resources>
96    &lt;string name="title">Mon Application&lt;/string>
97    &lt;string name="hello_world">Bonjour le monde !&lt;/string>
98&lt;/resources>
99</pre>
100
101<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> You can use the locale qualifier (or any
102configuration qualifer) on any resource type, such as if you want to provide
103localized versions of your bitmap drawable. For more information, see <a
104href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/localization.html">Localization</a>.
105
106<h2 id="UseString">Use the String Resources</h2>
107
108<p>You can reference your string resources in your source code and other XML files using the
109resource name defined by the {@code &lt;string>} element's {@code name} attribute.</p>
110
111<p>In your source code, you can refer to a string resource with the syntax {@code
112R.string.&lt;string_name>}. There are a variety of methods that accept a string resource this
113way.</p>
114
115<p>For example:</p>
116
117<pre>
118// Get a string resource from your app's {@link android.content.res.Resources}
119String hello = {@link android.content.Context#getResources()}.getString(R.string.hello_world);
120
121// Or supply a string resource to a method that requires a string
122TextView textView = new TextView(this);
123textView.setText(R.string.hello_world);
124</pre>
125
126<p>In other XML files, you can refer to a string resource with the syntax {@code
127&#64;string/&lt;string_name>} whenever the XML attribute accepts a string value.</p>
128
129<p>For example:</p>
130
131<pre>
132&lt;TextView
133    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
134    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
135    android:text="@string/hello_world" />
136</pre>
137
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