CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#
CasperT
CasperT

Reputation: 3475

best way to store/use multiple languages

If I would want to create a c# application that support multiple languages, how should I store them?

I'd probably use constants in the application as value holders.

Such as: Console.Write(FILE_NOT_FOUND);

When compiled, it would change into the string determined by the language. I'll probably stick to 3 languages (Danish, English, Deutsch), not that I think it matters though.

It seems to be a waste to have a class file for each language, which all is processed when the application is compiled. It would also mean that you'd have to re-compile and re-distribute the whole program every time you want to change a string. As far as I know, hardcoded strings is a bad thing.

Maybe a text file? English.txt Line1: FILE_NOT_FOUND=File Not Found. Try Again Line2 Line3 etc.

Danish.txt Line1: FILE_NOT_FOUND=Filen blev ikke fundet. Prøv igen Line2 Line3 etc.

and so on. If the user selects English, it reads the text file and set the different constant values.

The last one I can think of is placing it in a SQL database.

Could you give me some input? :)

Also, I tried writing FILE _ NOT _ FOUND (without spaces, but the text editor wouldn't let me

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2638

Answers (4)

Reed Copsey
Reed Copsey

Reputation: 564423

Use a resource file. That's the standard way to handle localization.

For details, see this tutorial.

--- EDIT ---

An alternative tutorial is available here. This one uses much better naming, so it may be more clear how it works.

Upvotes: 7

Ralph Shillington
Ralph Shillington

Reputation: 21098

I think your best option is to use the built in localization resources of the .NET Framework. You can read more about the mechanics of that here.

As for using a database to store your localised elements (text, images and the like) this is certainly a common option, but I think it's mostely because developers understand getting data from a database, more than working with satellite assemblies and the like. There a number of problems with using a database, so I'll name only a few: 1) added complexity of deployment of the application 2) addtional load on the database server, 3) where do you store the localized messages to say that the database is down :)

Using some sort of text file (likely XML) also carries with it some deployment issues, but more importanly the percieved flexibility of making text changes 'on the fly' is somewhat over rated. Apart of spelling mistakes and awkward wording you'll almost always be shipping a new build as the text of your app changes.

Upvotes: 4

David Thornley
David Thornley

Reputation: 57046

This topic is far too large for a reply.

The process of making a program ready for new languages is normally called "internationalization" or "i18n", and the process of taking that and actually making it run is "localization" or "l10n".

Briefly, you want to have hardcoded strings replaced by string resources, as you say, and then typically create different resource files for different languages. Assuming you're working in .NET (a fairly good assumption for C#), there's a lot of stuff Microsoft does to make it easier.

Remember that there are other localization issues than language. For example, the Danish currency symbol is probably not '$', but rather the Euro symbol, dates are almost certainly abbreviated differently, and many places use ',' for the decimal point and '.' for the thousands separator, opposite from the English practice.

Upvotes: 0

Chris Doggett
Chris Doggett

Reputation: 20757

Check out the Localization/Internationalization samples here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688096.aspx

I've also heard good things about this book.

Upvotes: 2

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