What does the number after //$NON-NLS- mean

Question

This is a follow up question to: What does $NON-NLS-1$ mean?

I've noticed that the comment tag will be recognized as a NLS tag when you use any number. However, only the number 1 seems to correctly fixed the warning. (Silenced warning vs. unsilenced warning + unnecessary nls tag)

What is the purpose of this?

Answer 1

The number after $NON-NLS- signifies which string on the tagged line the tag is for. The number 1 works for you, likely because there is only 1 string on the line you are trying to tag.

If you had 2 strings on the same line, you can, for example, tag only the second string using $NON-NLS-2$.

//Warning on "baz"
foo("bar","baz"); //$NON-NLS-1$

//Warning on "bar"
foo("bar","baz"); //$NON-NLS-2$

//No warnings
foo("bar","baz"); //$NON-NLS-1$  //$NON-NLS-2$

//Warning on "baz" (apparently the slashes are required even with multiple tags)
foo("bar","baz"); //$NON-NLS-1$  $NON-NLS-2$