How to format localised strings in Swift?
IosSwiftInternationalizationString FormattingIos Problem Overview
I am learning to localise my app to Simplified Chinese. I am following this tutorial on how to do this.
Because the tutorial is based on Obj-C, formatted strings can be written like this:
"Yesterday you sold %@ apps" = "Ayer le vendió %@ aplicaciones";
"You like?" = "Es bueno?";
But I am using Swift. And in Swift I don't think you can use %@
to indicate that there is something to be placed there. We have string interpolation right?
My app is kind of related to maths. And I want to display which input(s) is used to compute the result in a detailed label of a table view cell. For example
--------------
1234.5678
From x, y <---- Here is the detailed label
--------------
Here, From x, y
means "The result is computed from x and y". I want to translate this to Chinese:
从 x, y 得出
Before, I can just use this:
"From \(someVariable)"
with the strings file:
"From" = "从 得出";
And this is how I would use it in code
"\(NSLocalizedString("From", comment: "")) \(someVariable)"
But if this were used in the Chinese version, the final string will be like this:
"从 得出 x, y"
I mean I can put the 从
and 得出
in two different entries in the strings file. But is there a better way to do it?
Ios Solutions
Solution 1 - Ios
You can use %@
in Swift's String(format:...)
, it can be substituted
by a Swift String
or any instance of a NSObject
subclass.
For example, if the Localizable.strings file contains the definition
"From %@, %@" = "从 %@, %@ 得出";
then
let x = 1.2
let y = 2.4
let text = String(format: NSLocalizedString("From %@, %@", comment: ""), "\(x)", "\(y)")
// Or alternatively:
let text = String(format: NSLocalizedString("From %@, %@", comment: ""), NSNumber(double: x), NSNumber(double: y))
produces "从 1.2, 2.4 得出". Another option would be to use the
%f
format for double floating point numbers:
"From %f, %f" = "从 %f, %f 得出";
with
let text = String(format: NSLocalizedString("From %f, %f", comment: ""), x, y)
See Niklas' answer for an even better solution which localizes the number representation as well.
Solution 2 - Ios
From WWDC 2017:
let format = NSLocalizedString("%d popular languages", comment:"Number of popular languages")
label.text = String.localizedStringWithFormat(format, popularLanguages.count)
Solution 3 - Ios
One more simple example
let changeable = "something"
let result = String(format: NSLocalizedString("stringId", comment: ""), arguments: [changeable]) // Hello World and something
localizable.strings with
"stringId" = "Hello World and %@";
comment
parameter doesn't have effect on result and is used for translators and bygenstrings
code-gen as comment
Solution 4 - Ios
New in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey you can use the new refined method for String. String(localized: "From (x), (y)", comment: "The result is computed from x and y")
They did a lot of updates in 2021 for localization with Xcode. Check out this video for WWDC21 for more info.
Solution 5 - Ios
In objective C, if we want to get strings added at runtime as below
John Appleseed is the name
YourLocalizable.strings
"theStringToDisplay" = "%@ is the name";
ViewController.m
NSString *username = @"John Appleseed";
NSString *messageBeforeFormat = NSLocalizedStringFromTable(@"theStringToDisplay", @"YourLocalizable", nil);
NSString *messageAfterFormat = [NSString stringWithFormat:messageBeforeFormat, username ];
self.yourLabel.text = messageAfterFormat;
Further explanation in this nice post
https://www.oneskyapp.com/academy/learn-ios-localization/2-format-strings-plurals/