multi language support in android studio

Question

I read this google doc.

It says we must use this format:

<resource type>-b+<language code>[+<country code>]

for example: value-b+es/string.xml But somewhere it use value-es/string.xml

Is it true?

also how system can understand which language must choose?

for example I call string by this:

String hello = getResources().getString(R.string.hello_world);

Do I have to use a condition? (if yes how?) ...I couldn't undesrtand the doc well.

Answer 1

Yes. Android OS can choose the best language for user from your app by searching res folder.

For example,you can define the Spanish string values in the res/values-es/strings.xml.

So, if user set up their primary language as a Spanish in the phone, Android OS will read strings from your res/values-es/strings.xml folder first instead of res/values/strings.xml.

If some strings missing in the res/values-es/strings.xml then it will be referenced from res/values/strings.xml

Answer 2

Android loads text and media resources from the project’s ‘res’ directory. based on the current device configuration and locale.

For example, if the code loads a string called ‘R.string.title’, Android will choose the correct value for that string at runtime by loading the appropriate strings.xml file from a matching ‘res/values’ directory.

AndroidAppProject/
res/
   values/
       strings.xml
   values-es/
       strings.xml
   values-fr/
       strings.xml

At runtime, the Android system uses the appropriate set of string resources based on the locale currently set for the user's device.

Now u can load specific locale strings from res folder using:

getResources().getString(R.string.hello_world);

For ex:

 Configuration conf = getResources().getConfiguration();
conf.locale = new Locale("fr"); //french language locale
DisplayMetrics metrics = new DisplayMetrics();
getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(metrics);
Resources resources = new Resources(getAssets(), metrics, conf);
/* get localized string */
String str = resources.getString(R.string.hello_world);

this will load R.string.hello_world from values-fr/ directory.

See the Doc