How can I get a localized string in a Factorio mod Lua script?

Question

How can I get a localized string in a Factorio mod Lua script?

item.localised_name contains only the key. I can use print({"",item.localised_name}) to print the localized name to the UI. but I want it in a variable to write it into a file.

Answer 1

There's a couple different ways you could go about this. I'd recommend just passing the localised string to write_file as it accepts localised strings and will translate it according to each player's locale when writing to the file.

Note that write_data also accepts the append parameter, so you can write your file in pieces for each bit you want to translate.

Alternatively, you can call request_translation if you want to have the translated value of a specific player's locale and you need it in your lua.

Note though that this is asynchronous so you get the result back in an event.